The watercourse trilogy book 2 lies of light

"I've been meaning to take up this 'fishing' I've heard tell of." Devorast didn't look up from the bowl when he said, "You won't like fishing." "Oh, and why not?" "It depends too much on

Forgotten Realms

Watercourse, Lies of Light

By Philip Athans

THE STORY THUS FAR

The city-state of Innarlith sits on the far eastern shore of the Lake of Steam, all but ignored by thewider Realms There, the poor suffer in the crime-ridden streets of the Fourth Quarter, craftsmen plytheir trades in the Third Quarter, the privileged few live in luxury in the Second Quarter, and shipscome and go from the docks of the First Quarter

Pristoleph was born into the day-to-day horrors of the Fourth Quarter slums, but even as a boy hedreamed of greater things As a man he's become one of the city's most powerful men

Marek Rymiit, son of a wealthy Thayan merchant, was indoctrinated into the ranks of the mysteriousRed Wizards Decades later he's sent to Innarlith where he quickly insinuates himself into the city-state's inner circles

Ivar Devorast and Willem Korvan, students from Cormyr, both find their way to Innarlith as well.There, Devorast learns shipbuilding, while Willem pursues power and influence

Phyrea, daughter of the city's influential master builder, is the perfect young lady by day—and acunning thief by night When she spends the summer at her family's country estate, she meets Devorastand is changed forever, encounters the ghosts of the haunted manor, and is slowly driven mad

As Willem's star rises in Innarlan society, Devorast sinks into poverty, but only one of them feels theicy chill of desperation Willem sees all his dreams come true, but satisfaction eludes him Devorast

is inspired to build a canal to link the Lake of Steam with the Sea of Fallen Stars When completed, itwill change the face of Faerun forever But for everyone who wants to see that day come, there's atleast one who would kill to prevent it

1

6 Hammer, the Year of the Sword (1365DR) Berrywilde

Phyrea watched it eating, and it was the most horrifying thing she'd ever seen

After only the first few bites the mystery of what had been killing the workers at her father's vineyardhad been explained They'd blamed one animal after another, hunted for wolves, then bears, then giantboars The remains had always been found in the morning—bones with a few strips of bloody flesh ortendon hanging from them like threads off the edge of an old blanket They never found the skulls

At first, Phyrea didn't pay any attention She didn't even know anything was wrong at the camp until atenday and a half and six murders had passed It had been more than three months since she'd leftBerrywilde for Innarlith, and she wasn't happy about having to go back

The ghosts had come with her, but at least in the city she didn't feel so alone with them, so much likethem

But when her father told her about the murders, complained that the workers were beginning to desertthe site and the winery construction was woefully behind schedule, something nudged at her Shewanted to call it guilt, but wasn't sure what the feeling was It wasn't as though she had killed andeaten those men herself She'd been miles away when it happened, but the voices that spoke to herwhen no one was there seemed to relish the news of the murders They took some kind of spiteful glee

in the fact

that something was eating those innocent men It was the feeling that they knew something she didn'tthat brought her back to the country estate Her own instincts, and her sense of smell, brought her tothe ghast

It didn't see her, hear her, or smell her At least it hadn't yet Phyrea wanted to look away from it, but

couldn't In the dim starlight it was difficult at first to tell that it wasn't human—or at least was nolonger human She had heard of things like it before—ghouls—undead creatures that feasted on theflesh of humans, but what was killing the workers was something similar, but stronger, moredangerous.

Phyrea sighed

The ghast took another bite, a huge mouthful of bloody skin from the dead man's thigh It came awaywith a tearing sound, duller than fabric Thick blood pattered on the wet grass The thing's jaggedfangs ripped the skin and meat into strips that it gulped down with undisguised relish Its burning redeyes rolled back slightly in its misshapen skull, and its shoulders twitched The ghast's purple fleshwas the color of a bruise, but a single bruise that covered its entire bony, naked form Even from adistance Phyrea could smell rotting flesh, decaying meat, blood both old and new the odor of acrypt

You made that, a voice—one she had come to associate with the old woman who'd lost the skin fromthe side of her face in what must have been a terrible fire—echoed in Phyrea's mind

Pretty, pretty thing, a little girl's voice added

Phyrea tried to answer with a feeling of impatience She tried to tell them to be quiet without words,and for the moment at least it seemed to have worked

They were well outside the perimeter torches of the work camp—far enough that no one could hearthe ghast feed The workers who remained, and the guards her father had hired to protect them, slept

as soundly as they could knowing that the murders were still going on Phyrea couldn't see in the darkany better than any other human girl her

age, but the starlight would just have to be enough

You don't want to see it any better anyway, a man's voice told her

She smiled, nodded, and took a step closer to the still-feeding ghast It didn't hear her first step, andwent on chewing with the same calm abandon She had the gentle winter breeze in her face, so hadreason to hope that the undead cannibal couldn't smell her either

As she moved closer still, one silent footstep at a time, she wrapped the fingers of her right handaround the pommel of her sword The grip tingled at her touch, almost as though the beautiful bladewere trying to communicate with her She'd been getting that feeling more and more from the swordshe'd found in the hidden tomb beneath her family's country manor Like before, she ignored it Theweapon felt good when she used it, so she let it nettle her when she wasn't

Though the blade didn't make the faintest whisper of a sound when it left the scabbard, the ghastlooked up when she drew it Perhaps the finely crafted, wave-shaped blade had caught a bit of thestarlight Maybe the creature finally smelled her despite the cool breeze It could have heard the toe

of her boot sink into the rain-soaked, muddy grass

It can taste you already, the burned old crone told her It remembers you

Remembers me? she thought, and was answered with the feeling of morbid amusement

The ghast growled and lunged at her She stepped back, skipping on the tips of her toes, and broughther sword up in front of her She stopped, and froze for half a heartbeat, for two reasons First, shewas hit by the stench like she'd fallen from a tree onto her head And second, she recognized the thing.Closer, a break in the gathering clouds letting through just enough starlight to reveal it's violet-huedfeatures, she could see its face Skin stretched taut over its skull, it appeared to be a man who hadn'teaten in weeks Stretched

back over teeth that would have been even more horrifying to the man it had once been, its crackedlips drew back into something that might have been a smile

"You," the ghast said, its voice a desiccated mockery of its living counterpart "I know you."

"Yes," Phyrea replied "Yes."

"It's you," the thing hissed

Phyrea tried to speak again but gagged instead The smell of the thing was thick in the air She couldtaste it as much as smell it The damp night around her had a greasy quality to it Bile rose in herthroat, and she found herself fighting just to breathe Her lungs at once lusted for air and rejected theputrescence, and they had no choice but to inhale

"Why?" the ghast asked, and Phyrea thought it was going to cry

She shook her head and coughed The ghast took that as an opportunity to lunge at her, its yellowedtalons out in front of it to rake her flesh from her bones Its fang-lined mouth opened wide If shecould have breathed, she would have screamed, but instead she acted

Was it her arm that reacted or the sword itself? She didn't know, but in the moment, she didn't care.All she knew was that the blade took one of the ghast's hands off at the wrist before the claws couldtouch her

The undead thing scrambled back, screeching so loudly that Phyrea's eyes closed against the sound.The cry was one part pain, one part anger, and it was the second part that snapped Phyrea's eyes open

as fast as they'd shut It was going to come at her again

The sword once again moved her arm, pulling at her She stabbed at the ghast, letting the enchantedblade do the work for her The wavy steel sank deep into the thing's chest, releasing black blood thatfell in clumps to the ground The smell made her stomach twist and her eyes water She was too close

to the thing and tried to back away, tried to pull the sword out of it, but the blade only went deeper

"What now?" the ghast rattled, it's voice like the last gasp of a drowning man

A chorus of voices, none of them her own, echoed in Phyrea's head: Obliteration

"Obliteration," she whispered to the man she'd killed three months before

"No," the ghast whimpered

Dissolution, the voices cried out

"I'm sorry," Phyrea breathed

The second time, one of the voices told her, is forever

"The foreman," Phyrea whispered, and the ghast, with the last bit of strength left to it, nodded "Ikilled you."

The ghast froze, every muscle tense, and only then did Phyrea realize it was on its knees Shecoughed, and the face she recognized blew away, the purple-bruised skin turned to dust A white skullglowed in the meager starlight, then more bones as the rest of the undead flesh drifted away on thedamp winter breeze It fell apart, clattering to her feet, a pile of bleached white bones

The smell was gone

Phyrea took a step back and looked at the sword It tingled in her hand, and more than ever, she wasafraid of it

Yes, the voice of the man—the man with the scar on his cheek in the shape of a Z—whispered intoher consciousness,' it was the sword It was the sword that killed him

"And the sword that brought him back," Phyrea whispered in reply

2_

7 Hammer, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) The Canal Site

J\.8 far as Hrothgar could tell, no one in the camp worked harder than Ivar Devorast And by allrights, Devorast was the one who should have been working the least It was

his project after all, his brainchild, his life's work Or was it?

"There are times, Ivar," Hrothgar told him that cool, gray morning in the first month of the year, "that Ithink this mad delusion of yours is more whim than obsession."

Devorast heard him, though he gave no outward sign The human read from a list of provisions thathad recently been delivered to the work site by one of the ransar's supply caravans

"That half-elf what's his name?" the dwarf prodded

"Enril," Devorast replied

"For the sake of Moradin's sweatin' danglies, Ivar, do you really know the name of every swingin'hammer at work here?" That drew the slightest trace of a smile from Devorast, and Hrothgar pressed

on "Can't Enril see to that? It's his job, isn't it?"

"He has," Devorast said

Hrothgar was about to heave a dramatic, world-weary sigh, but stopped himself, knowing full well itwould be lost on that peculiar human he'd come to call a friend

"There's a difference, you know, between a dwarf and a pick-axe," Hrothgar said

A warm breeze blew in from the south, bringing the sulfur-tinged breath of the Lake of Steam with it,rattling the wood shutters that closed the window from the morning's damp Devorast got to the end ofthe list, folded the parchment once in half, then stuffed it into the wood stove that warmed the littlecabin that was Devorast's home, office, command post, and

"Temple," Hrothgar mumbled It felt like a temple of sorts, but devoted to no god but Devorasthimself A god who asked for and accepted no worshipers, no prayers, no mercy, no pity, butenormous responsibility

"I'm going to understand you one day," the dwarf said "I may have to live as long as a withered oldelf, but I'm going to figure your mind out if it's the death of me."

Devorast ignored him, moving on from the list of

provisions to a written report from one of the foremen Hrothgar didn't bother trying to read over thehuman's shoulder He didn't really care what the foreman had to say, and by the look on his faceneither did Devorast Still, Hrothgar could see by the way his eyes moved that Devorast read everyword before stuffing it, too, into the fire

"It's an old saying from the Great Rift," Hrothgar went on "Wisdom from home, right? 'There's adifference between a dwarf and a pick-axe.'"

Devorast looked at him, and Hrothgar was momentarily taken aback by the sudden shift in his friend'sattention The dwarf swallowed

"It means," Hrothgar said after clearing his throat, "that a good king doesn't use his people like tools."

"I'm no one's king," Devorast said

"Close enough, out here," the dwarf said

"I've read the complaints."

"I'm not talking about complaints A man signs up to dig he should shut up and dig; he signs up to cuttrees he should get to sawin' What I mean is how you use your own self, my friend Doin' the work of

a thousand men is only necessary when you don't have a thousand men to do as you say You don'thave to do everything You don't have to wield every tool, read every supply list Trust yer people forthe Gray Protector's sake."

"You know I don't mean any disrespect at all when I remind you that I don't do anything for the GrayProtector's sake," said Devorast "I trust the people here to do what they do, but I hold myself to acertain standard and so I hold this canal to that standard, which means I have to hold everyone whotouches it to the same standard You never struck me as the sort who would find that unreasonable.I've seen the standards you set for your own work."

Hrothgar took a breath with the intent to argue, but he couldn't find the words He wasn't quite surewhat to say If Devorast noticed his discomfiture he made no sign.

The dwarf let his breath out in a sigh and let his gaze

roam around the single room as Devorast sifted through a bowl of loose soil with his fingers Theroom was a clutter of sheets of parchment, some as big square as Hrothgar was tall Drawings hadbeen tacked to the walls, clothes lay in rumpled piles on the floor, and a meager collection of dishessat clean—perhaps never used—on a little shelf by the stove Devorast looked much like his quarters.His red hair was clean but in a fashion Hrothgar thought atypical of humans and elves, it was long anduncombed His skin was weathered from their time in the damp and rain of a winter north of the Lake

of Steam His clothing was simple and practical, sturdy and unadorned He wore not a single piece ofjewelry His fingertips were stained with the charcoal he used to write and draw, and the dirt he was

in some ways moving himself, handful by handful, to form his straight-line river to connect sea to sea

"If you find a worm in there, save it for me," Hrothgar said, nodding at the bowl of dirt Devorast stillsifted through, deep in thought "I've been meaning to take up this 'fishing' I've heard tell of."

Devorast didn't look up from the bowl when he said, "You won't like fishing."

"Oh, and why not?"

"It depends too much on the whim of the fish."

3

IS Hammer, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) Second Quarter, Innarlith

It's cold outside," Phyrea said, staring out the window, her back to Marek Rymiit "I hate it when itgets cold like this."

Marek didn't feel cold There was a bit of a chill in the air, but it never really got too cold inInnarlith The stinking warm waters of the volcanic Lake of Steam kept the air warm and damp most

of the year

But it wasn't the weather that Marek found interesting just then It was Phyrea herself

"It's positively freezing, my dear," he said to her back

She didn't turn around, but seemed to relax a bit Her shoulders sagged, but didn't hunch Marekcouldn't shake the feeling that she wanted to turn and face him but was afraid to He couldn't imaginethat she feared him for any reason She'd never shown any sign of that before, and they had knowneach other at least in passing for some time

"There's something different about you," he said, keeping his voice light, though what he began to feelemanating from her was increasingly disturbing "You've been away."

"I've been at Berrywilde," she all but whispered

He knew it well He'd been to one or another social engagement there—her father's country estate.The first time he walked into the main house he knew it was haunted, but no one else seemed to sense

it, so he'd kept quiet

"Lovely," he said "I've been dabbling myself with a little place outside the city."

And he would never tell Phyrea just how far outside the city the Land of One Hundred and Thirteenwas

"It's cold," she said again, hugging herself, wrapping her slim fingers around her upper arms Sheshivered just enough for Marek to notice

"Has something scared you?" he said It was a risk to ask, but Marek couldn't think of a reason not to.Phyrea stiffened

"Do you want to tell me about it?" he asked "Is that why you came here today? To tell me about what

—?"

"We don't know each other that well, Master Rymiit."

There was a long silence before Marek finally said, "Of course that's true, isn't it? One could saywe're really little more than distant social acquaintances I'll admit that when I received word that youwanted to come see me in my home I was as surprised as I was intrigued What is it I can do for you,

my dear?"

Still not turning to show him her face, she said, "I have a certain item that I found."

Marek smiled He'd heard rumors about her but had never believed them Could they be true? Couldthe master builder's beautiful little debutante really be the leather-clad sneak thief that had stolen fromthe finest families in the city-state? If she was, Marek puzzled over why Her father was wealthy andwell-placed, and she his only family She couldn't want for anything

Just like me, he thought, before the zulkir came to take me away

"Tell me all about it," he prompted, then swept his robes up behind him and sat on a divan of pastellavender rothehide that had cost him exactly twice the annual income of the average citizen ofInnarlith Marek always liked reminding himself of that otherwise trivial fact

Phyrea sighed in a way that almost felt to Marek as though she was condemning his musing over thedivan, then she said, "It's a sword."

"Is it?" he said around a half-stifled yawn

"I think it's called a falchion."

"A falchion, then."

"Is that what you call it?" she asked "The blade is wavy, like water." And as she said that she movedone finger in a series of slow, undulating arcs that almost anyone else in Faerun would surely havefound sensual "Is that a falchion?"

"Flamberge," he corrected "But surely that's not all you'd like to know."

"I've been assured that you know how to " She paused and he could tell she was searching for theright word, but it also appeared as though she listened intently to something or someone, though theThayan wizard heard no sound "You can read, or sense the magic in things You can tell me what thissword can do."

"So," he replied, "you came across an enchanted blade at your daddy's country retreat and you'd like

me to identify its properties for you?"

She nodded, still not looking at him

He took a deep breath and said, "Well, you certainly have come to the right place I won't pretend thatI'm not at least a little disappointed that this visit isn't entirely social I was so hoping we could get toknow one another just a little bit better."

"I'll pay you," she said

"You insult me," he shot back fast, his voice cold

She stiffened again, and still appeared to be listening at the same time

"But never mind that," he said "Do you have the weapon with you?"

She shook her head

"Well, of course I'll have to not only see it but handle it in order to give you any relevant information

We can work out a mutually beneficial arrangement as far as payment or exchange of services isconcerned But I get the feeling you have one particular question you'd like me to answer."

"The sword kills people," she said

Marek laughed and said, "Well, then, it's fulfilled its one true destiny, hasn't it?"

"No," Phyrea replied, "that's not what I mean."

She turned to face him, and Marek was taken aback by the cold and terrified gaze she leveled on him

Her eyes shook, though her face remained perfectly calm, almost dead.

"Tell me, girl," he whispered

"I used it to kill a man," she said, "and he came back."

Marek flinched a little, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "He came back ?"

Phyrea shuddered, hugged herself again, turned back to face the window though her head tipped down

to look at the floor, and said, "A ghoul."

"A sword that makes ghouls, is it?"

"No," she said "It was a ghast."

"Have you heard about the canal?" he asked, changing the subject as fast as possible in hopes ofsnapping her out of what seemed almost a hypnotic state

She turned and faced him again The terror in her eyes replaced with annoyed curiosity, she asked,

"What?"

"This mad man has convinced our dear ransar to give him all the gold in the city in order to dig atrench all the way from the Lake of Steam to the Nagaf low and fill it up with water I understand itwill take a hundred thousand men a hundred thousand years to dig it, but they've begun in earnest."She didn't seem to believe him, and not just because he'd so greatly exaggerated the number of menand the length of time the project would require She'd been back in the city long enough that surelyshe'd have heard of Ivar Devorast and his fool's errand But she hadn't

"Does my father know about this?" she asked

"Of course," Marek replied "He doesn't like it one bit, of course A sensible man, your father, hisloyalties are with the city-state."

"A canal," she said, her voice a breathy, barely audible whisper "If they can connect the Sea ofFallen Stars to "

He watched her stare at the floor, thinking about it She seemed impressed, and Marek hated that Hehated people who were impressed with that dangerous idea, that mad errand

"You will bring me the flamberge?" he asked

Phyrea nodded, but her eyes gave no indication that she'd actually heard him Again, she listened tosomething or someone Marek couldn't hear

So, he thought, the country house isn't the only thing of the master builder's that's haunted

4_

3Alturiak, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) Second Quarter, Innarlith

What is so special," Surero whispered into the cold, damp air of his cell, "about one hundred andtwenty-five?"

When they first locked him up, he'd been told that they would feed him once a day Assuming they hadbeen as good as their word, he'd been in the cell for one hundred and twenty-five days, since the firstday of Marpenoth in the Year of the Wave

"The third," he told himself "It's the third day of Alturiak."

"That's right," the voice from beyond the door replied

The sound of the first human voice he'd heard in four months tickled Surero's ears Much as he'd tried

to engage his jailers in conversation, none of them had ever answered All they did was take thebucket of urine and feces, replace it with an empty bucket, then slide in the moldy, hard bread and thetin cup of water Sometimes they gave him a strip of pork fat or a fish head

"Why?" he asked the door "Why today?"

There was no answer right away, and Surero's heart raced He stood on legs that had been too weak

to support him for most of the last month They held him, though, even if they were a bit shaky He'd

taken to spending his days sitting against the cool, rough stone of the subterranean cell He had nowindow, and after he'd eaten the first two he came across, eventually even the spiders stoppedwandering in.

A sound came from behind the door—the clank of keys on a ring

"Hello?" Surero called out, his own voice hurting his ears, which had grown so accustomed to theutter silence of the tomb

"Stand away from the door," the man's deep voice rumbled, and Surero imagined it made the heavy,iron-bound oak door quiver as if in fright

He slid one foot back, then the second foot to meet it, and almost fell He put a hand against the wall,scraping some skin from his palm, but he held himself up His eyes burned, and if he'd had enoughwater in his body, he'd have begun to cry Instead he just stood there and quivered

"We're going to let you go," the voice said "Do you understand?"

Surero's voice caught in his throat He nodded, but the man wouldn't be able to see him He stood andwaited, and it seemed as though an awfully long time had passed The door didn't open

"He's playing a trick on me," Surero whispered

Then his teeth closed as tightly as his throat, and his wasted, filthy, clammy body trembled withimpotent rage He boiled inside his six by six cell, and tried to close his ears to the sound of menmoving on the other side of the door

They aren't there, he told himself Give up Give up hope

Surero hadn't had a word of news from the outside world for a hundred and twenty-five days For all

he knew, the hated Marek Rymiit was dead But he doubted that Surely the Thayan scum had onlyfurther ingratiated himself into the petty aristocracy of Innarlith Surero had no doubt that Rymiit hadtaken from more and more people like him The Thayan had taken his customers, had stolen hisformulae, had robbed him of his reputation Surero, who had lived every moment of his miserableexistence in the pursuit of excellence in the alchemical arts, had been reduced to a ragged, homeless,desperate husk of a man, no more substantial a creature than the wretch four months in the ransar'sdungeon had made him When he'd done the only thing fitting, the only thing a man in his positioncould do, he had failed Something had gone wrong The mixture itself had worked and the explosionwas powerful, but Marek Rymiit had lived

And Surero had gone to the dungeon to rot Forever

A key turned in the lock The sound was unmistakable

Surero looked up at the door, his eyes locked on the very edge so he could perceive any minute crackthat might actually open

Fear washed away his hatred, but the source was the same Was it Marek Rymiit behind that door?Was it the Thayan robber come to kill him once and for all?

"Rymiit?' he asked, his voice squeaking past his constricted vocal chords

The door swung open to a flash of blinding light and a deafening squeak of hinges that hadn't beenused, much less oiled, in four months Surero's eyes locked shut against the brilliant illumination ofthe single torch, and he could only listen as the man stepped into the room, his steps heavy and

confident, shaking the stained flagstones beneath them.

"Stand up," the voice commanded, closer and clearer with no door between it and Surero

"Kill me," Surero croaked, his hands pressed hard against his burning eyes "Go ahead and kill me,Thayan bastard."

A hand that seemed the size of a god's grabbed a fistful of the soiled linen gown that had been his onlyclothing since the previous Marpenoth, and took a few dozen chest hairs along with it Surero wincedand shook as he was pulled to his feet

Hot breath that smelled almost as bad as his cell washed over his face, and the man said, "Who in theNine perspi-rin' Hells are you calling a Thayan?"

Surero chanced it He opened one eye

"You " he mumbled "You're not Rymiit."

"I'm the jailer, wretch," the man said "I'm the bloke what's been feeding you these months How'sabout a little gratitude here, eh?"

Surero swallowed, forgetting how much his throat hurt, and replied, "Yes Sorry Thanks."

That made the jailer laugh, and Surero was just relived

enough that it wasn't Rymiit who'd come to claim him that he laughed a little too

"Are you really ?" the prisoner stuttered "A-are are y-you going to ?"

"You're all done, mate," the jailer said, setting Surero down and letting go his clothes "The 'Thayanbastard' said you'd had enough so the ransar's springin' ya You're free."

"Free?" Surero asked It was not possible—not for the reasons the jailer gave "I've had enough?"

"Well, kid, you didn't kill him after all."

9Alturiak, the Year ofthe Sword (1365 DR) Second Quarter, Innarlith

Everybody who would eventually be somebody was there Willem Korvan made an effort to talk toeach and every one of them, but didn't bother listening He watched their mouths move He noddedand smiled From time to time he tipped his head a bit to one side as if really concentrating on whatthey had to say then he would nod again and smile Nodding and smiling, he might make ameaningless comment on what they were wearing Then he would smile and nod Each and every one

of them smiled back, and nodded

What Willem was most concerned with at the time was the smell Marek Rynuit's fashionable SecondQuarter home had all the right furniture and fixtures, everything predictable and acceptable, but thesmell could not be ignored

Oranges? he thought No Nothing so simple Willem wondered if it could be a combination of things.Oranges after all, maybe, but mixed with lamp oil? No

The mortar they'd used on the city wall project combined with a Fourth Quarter beggar's sick and theporridge his mother used to make when he was a boy?

Closer

"The current state of things," another young senator said to Willem's blank, smiling face, "guaranteesnaught but that the wealthy grow only wealthier while the poor become increasingly desperate overtime Really, it's up to us, isn't it, Korvan, to set things aright once and for all, just as Master Rymiitsuggests?"

Willem smiled and nodded, and the young senator appeared pleased They wandered away from eachother and into the same conversations with different people.

"It did seem radical to me at first," a young woman trolling for a husband said behind too much inspired makeup "After all, my family has sold horses for generations and hardly worked as hard asthey have in order to see our estates divided among the tradesmen That idea in particular but, well,

Shou-if Master Rymiit thinks it's best "

Willem nodded but didn't smile He caught the woman's eye and detected just enough desperation inher gaze that he fled her presence as quickly as he could

Looking for Rymiit in the crowded sitting room, Willem began to formulate his excuse for leaving soearly Before he could find his host, though, he was stopped by an apparition

It had been some time since he'd seen her, but there she stood She'd just stepped into the room, andall at once the smell was gone, as though the air had refreshed itself in her honor

"Phyrea," he whispered

She either heard him or sensed his eyes on her, and she

looked right at him Willem took a step back and smiled She stared at him, but didn't smile back.When she stepped into the room the guests parted for her, and it was as if the air itself gave waybefore her They weren't afraid to touch her, just unworthy

Willem stepped forward to meet her and almost stumbled to a stop when Marek Rymiit slid betweenthem Focused only on Phyrea's jaw-dropping beauty, he hadn't seen the pudgy Thayan

"Ah, Phyrea," Marek said "Did I invite you?"

Phyrea smiled at him, and the sight of it made Willem's mouth go dry

"Ah, Marek," Phyrea replied "I came anyway."

They shared a conspiratorial smile that made Willem feel as though he should get out of that house asfast he could, then they both noticed him at the same time

"You've met Willem Korvan," Marek said

Phyrea nodded but didn't smile, and Willem smiled but didn't nod The other guests around themseemed to quiver

"So these are the young masters?" Phyrea asked Marek

"The heirs apparent, yes," he answered with a grin

Phyrea, unimpressed, said, "This canal-builder I've heard about " She turned to Willem "It's notyou."

"No," Willem said He wanted to elaborate, but the words failed him Phyrea wasn't listeninganyway

"Is he here?" she asked Marek

"No, he isn't," said the Thayan, with a hint of fire in his eyes

"I'm not surprised," Willem ventured, "that you and he wouldn't see eye to eye, Master Rymiit."

Phyrea scanned the room, bored, even exhausted She wasn't listening

"The young fool our unfortunate ransar has trusted with this exercise in endless ditch digging?" Marekreplied

"You don't know him?" Willem asked Phyrea

She shrugged the question off How could she know Ivar Devorast, after all?

"The last time we spoke, you inquired about a certain item," Marek said to Phyrea "Tell me youbrought it along."

"Hardly," she said, looking around the room so she didn't register Marek's annoyed look

Their host's expression changed back to its placid, friendly mien and he muttered, "Enjoy my little

With a bow Phyrea didn't return but Willem did, he was gone

"Phyrea," Willem said when he saw her begin to take a step away from him

She turned, impatient, and folded her arms in front of her

"Come with me," he said, reaching out to take her by the elbow

She flinched away from him as if his touch would scald her, and Willem's heart leaped "Please," hesaid

She wouldn't look at him, but turned and let him follow her to Marek's veranda They had to wavetheir way through huge clay pots that someone told him Marek had gotten from as far as Maztica Theplants were local, but appeared unhealthy

"Phyrea," he said when he hoped they were alone He tried to touch her again and she flinched Shemade no effort to mask her contempt for him

"Hate me if you want to," he told her "It doesn't make me want you any less."

"I don't hate you," she said

Relieved, Willem sighed

"I would have to think about you at all to hate you."

She isn't ignoring me, he told himself, then shook his head to try to rid himself of not only the wordsbut the feeling of relief that washed over him

"I don't care if you hate me, or think of me at all, or love me, or think of me as a brother," he said, thewords spilling out of him "I will serve you I will be your slave, if that's what you wish I will doanything to have you And I may be the only man in this wretched city who understands you—the onlyone willing to give you everything and ask for nothing in return."

She allowed him the briefest, unconvinced glare

"I understand that you're the kind of woman that the world has got to come to a screeching halt for," hewent on "You have to be the center not only of attention but of infinity itself."

"If you tell me you love me, I'll kill you where you stand," she said, and he could tell she meant it

"And if I told you I thought that might be worth dying for?" he asked

"Then all you'd be telling me is that you're a fool," she shot back "A boy."

"If-" he started

"When I was away from the city last summer," she interrupted, "at my father's estate in the country,there was a man He had me in a way you'll never have me."

Willem could swear at that moment that his heart turned to glass

"You're pretty," Phyrea said "You serve well You make friends easily You have position andpotential, and all of that meaningless stupidity I couldn't possibly find less interesting."

Willem closed his eyes against her words, but they kept coming

"That man, last summer," she went on, "was a stone mason He was nothing no one He was a brute,but he was more than you'll ever be, and no matter what happens between us for the rest of our lives,Willem, you will never be a tenth the man he is I'm not even sure it's because he's so great a man oryou're so insignificant, but likely a bit of both And not only did he fail to offer me his

mortal soul, when he left, he didn't even say good-bye."

Willem couldn't quite breathe

"There," she said "Still want me?"

He moved his lips, but no sound came out

"You're pathetic," she whispered as she brushed past him and disappeared behind the dying pottedplants

A drop of cold rain hit the bridge of Willem's nose and made him flinch He took a breath and sighed.

"Yes," he said to the cool night air, to the rooftops of Innarlith, "I still want you."

6_

l2Alturiak, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) First Quarter, Innarlith

The brutish man came at her with a hook, but it was his smell that Ran Ai Yu found most disturbing.They all smelled bad, as though they were rotting from within—and they looked it too She'd foughtanimated corpses that didn't stink so bad

She slit the dockworker's wrist, and the hook clattered onto the pier She didn't recognize any of thewords that spewed at her from his mostly toothless mouth, but his intent was clear

"You will stop this," she said to the wounded dock-worker while she kept him at bay with her sword

"I will pay you fairly."

Another string of unintelligible curses followed, and the man made the mistake of reaching for thehook She cut him again, and he backed away

"I don't want to kill you," she said

Another dockworker fell at her feet, pushing the man she'd cut even farther back from her That manheld some kind of crude club and had been kicked in the face hard enough to flatten his nose and soakhis face with his own blood

Ran Ai Yu glanced back in the direction the bloody man had come from Lau Cheung Fen stood withthe great porcelain ship Jie Zud behind him He stood on one foot, the other hanging in front of him,his knee at waist level The morning sun shone from his shaved head, which sat atop his unusuallylarge neck in a loose, comfortable way, as if suspended from above by a wire

The little hairs on the back of her neck stood on end

Something hit her on the side of the face Her teeth rattled, and her vision flared white, but she wasstill able to get her blade up fast enough to slap away the second blow The man she'd cut had beenjoined by two more, as ragged and reeking as he Though it was barely past dawn, they were drunk.Ran Ai Yu heard her passenger kick two more men She could only hope that he could take downenough of them to get to her before the two dockworkers that fast approached her joined the three shedid her best to fend off They were drunk, slow, and brutish, but five was too many for her

"I will pay you," she said

Her face felt hot The horrible men leered at her like hungry dogs

"You'll pay all right," the man she'd cut growled at her—perhaps he was a dog "But not with coin."Ran Ai Yu shifted her weight back onto her rear foot and set her sword blade parallel with the pier.She looked the lead thug in the eyes, sensed he was going to shift right, and that's what he did She lethim step into the sword tip, but didn't stab him The blade only went in the barest fraction of an inch.She didn't want to kill him If she killed him, she'd have to kill the rest of them

His two friends lunged at her, and Ran Ai Yu stepped back a few fast steps Then one of the men fellflat on his face She watched a stone roll along the wood planks, and blinked at it

When the second man fell she relaxed her stance, and let her sword arm fall to her side, the bladecrossed in front

of her legs She stood like that and watched Ivar Devorast knock the other man to the ground with hisfist He smiled at her over the man's limp form, and she smiled back A thud from behind her turnedher attention back to her passenger Lau Cheung Fen, like Devorast, stood over the unconsciousbodies of drunken dockhands "Miss Ran," Devorast said

She turned back to face him, sheathed her sword, and said, "Master Devorast, is good to see you onceagain." Lau Cheung Fen stepped up behind her, and she added, "May I present my passenger, the

honorable Lau Cheung Fen of Liaopei."

"Mister Lau," he said "Are you injured? Do you need any further assistance?"

"Your manner " Lau said "So like Shou." Devorast just looked at him

"We will require a crew to unload our cargo," Ran Ai Yu answered "These men tried to " Shepaused, searching for the word

"Who is this manfLau asked her in Kao te Shou, their native tongue

She looked at Devorast, but detected no outward trace that he was offended by Lau's speaking in front

of him in a language he did not understand

"Master Ivar Devorast is the man who created the great Jie ZuoV'she answered in the CommonTongue of Faerun

"Ah," Lau responded, and his head bent low on that strange long neck of his His eyes glittered black

in the sunshine "You are the great genius It is truly an honor to meet you, Master Devorast."

"Master Lau is a most important dignitary from my province," Ran said in hopes that she could helpDevorast frame his response properly

"Thank you, Master Lau," Devorast said, but his eyes stayed on Ran Ai Yu

"You have built many such ships, then," Lau said "I should purchase a number of them Though myhome is far

from the sea, many in Shou Lung have commented on the strange and wonderful ship of Ran Ai Yu,and would pay much for one of her kind."

"There are no more of her kind," Devorast said before Ran could say the same thing

"You have sport of me," said her passenger

"No," Ran Ai Yu cut in "He has built only this one, and will build no more like her."

"This is true?" he asked Devorast

"It is," was the Faerunian's only reply

"7s this some secret the white men seek to keep from us?" Lau asked in Kao te Shou

"With apologies, Master Devorast," she said, then turned to Lau "It is no secret He is a very unusualman, and that is all He will likely find it rude, however, if we continue to speak in a language hedoes not understand With respect, Master Lau, he is a friend and important trade contact."

"Indeed," Lau replied, then bowed to Devorast "Please accept my most humble apologies for myrudeness, Master Devorast Perhaps you would be so kind .if you no longer build your tile ships,what is it that occupies you? Perhaps if it is one of a kind as well, I might have it instead."

"It's a canal," Devorast replied

The two Shou merchants exchanged a glance

"Pardon me," Lau said He asked Ran Ai Yu, "Kuh-nahl?" She gave him the word in their language,and he nodded "Well, then I will not be able to take it with me Pray, where is this canal?"

"Northwest of here," he replied

"To connect the Lake of Steam with your great Inner Sea," Ran Ai Yu said Devorast nodded

"This will be a mighty boon to trade," said Lau

"For me," said Devorast, "it's a canal."

"I should like to see it," Ran Ai Yu said A memory tickled the edge of her consciousness—a similarconversation that she had had with Devorast when she'd last seen him

"I should like to show it to you," he said "But in the meantime, we should see to a dock crew foryou."

"Is this the way trade is always conducted here? With such violence?" asked the tall merchant—a manRan Ai Yu had her suspicions was no human at all He gestured to the fallen dockhands, some of them

beginning to rise.

"It was not so when I was last here, two years and three months ago," said Ran

"They made a mistake," Devorast said

Ran Ai Yu smiled

7 _

20Alturiak, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) The Canal Site

When she first saw the work site Ran Ai Yu thought it was some kind of military drill The sight of itgave the immediate impression of rigid organization that she had only experienced at the edge of aparade ground But then details presented themselves, pieces took shape out of the whole, and thatimpression disappeared She was left with chaos—madness, even—a barrage of colors and dizzyingmovement that erased any sense of organization at all, until she once again let those details melt intothe beautiful whole

"These men are all at your command?" she asked Devorast, who stood beside her on a low hill

The sound of the men working deafened her, but then Devorast didn't answer anyway Picks chippedstone, shovels moved dirt and clay, and carts trundled past full of rocks, earth, wood, and more men.Oxen grunted, foremen shouted orders, and it was like music for a great dance

"This is as it should be," she said, unconcerned with whether or not Devorast could hear her "Youwill find your destiny here Your spirit will fill itself with this work."

The heavy, damp air carried the smell of the Lake of Steam, but only faintly under the stench of turnedearth and sweating bodies It smelled like hard work

"I hope you live to see its completion," she said

Devorast shrugged—a response that would have been considered rude in Shou Lung—but she took nooffense

Ran Ai Yu crouched and touched the dirt at her feet It was damp but not muddy, and she was able toscoop up a handful, testing the weight of it in her hand She tried to imagine the weight of the dirt androck, the trees and weeds, that Devorast meant to move to make the trench for his canal Then shetried to imagine the weight of the water that would fill it, and though she'd plied the waters of a fargreater canal in her far-off homeland, still the weight felt unbearable

"You will not require that I tell you how many people there must be powerful people even whowill wish for you to fail," she told him

He waited for her to look up at him before he shrugged again

She let the dirt pour out through her fingers, and something made her touch the tip of her tongue Shedidn't try to understand the impulse to taste it any more than she wanted to stop it She just wanted totaste it—wanted to experience it with every one of her senses It tasted like life, but not the same wayfood or water tasted; not physical life, but a deeper need within each human, the drive to build, theimperative to leave something behind, to make some mark It tasted like the vital necessity to say, "Iwas here."

"Yes," he said, "you are."

Ran Ai Yu felt her cheeks redden and her ears burn She stood, avoiding his eyes

"I had not meant to to speak that," she stammered, her Common almost deserting her

Devorast said, "I've tasted it too."

She smiled at that, and smiled wider than she felt

proper in front of a man she had not—

The Shou merchant pushed that thought away before it was completed

"This is supported by your leader," she asked, "your ransar?"

"I don't consider him my ransar," Devorast replied, "but yes, it is."

"Both with the gold to pay these men and to buy their tools and materials, and so on," she said thenhad to pause to again search her memory for the correct word "Politically?"

Devorast nodded He didn't look at her Instead, his eyes darted from one part of the realization of hisgenius to another

"It is my understanding, having traveled to Innarlith on more than one occasion," she went on, "andover more than a few years, that their ransar is a temporary post Is this not true?"

He glanced at her with a mischievous grin that further embarrassed her, and said, "Any job that isanswerable to others could be called temporary."

"Ah, and is that not true of master builder?"

"I'm not the ransar's master builder," he said

"Even worse for you, I should think."

He looked at her again, but for a longer time, and she finally met his gaze

"If it is the ransar's gold and the ransar's men," she said, "then you work for him, whether either of youadmit it or not If pardon me, when there is a new ransar, will that ransar be as generous? Will he

be as taken with this canal as is Osorkon?"

Devorast replied, "Perhaps, but perhaps not Of course, I've considered that."

"And you have a plan?"

Devorast was silent

"Meykhati," she said "You've heard this name? You know this man?"

"I've heard the name."

"There is a reception at his home in six days' time," Ran Ai Yu said "I have been invited, and youshould come with me there."

"I have no time for social—"

"Do you have time to bury your garbage to keep the seagulls away?" she asked, glancing up at the skybut gesturing with one open hand at a refuse pit

He didn't follow her gaze He knew there were no gulls

"Of course you do," she said "You make time for what is important for the completion of your canal,even if it is not pleasant to consider or to do."

Again, silence

"Meykhati will likely be the next ransar," she said "How do you know that?"

"I do not know that," Ran Ai Yu replied "I have heard it said by people who I have reason to believehave reason to believe it That is enough, for me, to begin to acquaint myself with this man so that heknows my name and my face, knows my trade, in the event that these people are correct."

"And I should do the same," he said "I should ingratiate myself to this pointless, mumbling busybody

so that on the off chance that he succeeds Osorkon he will continue to support the canal?"

"Master Lau Cheung Fen will be there," she added, "at this gathering of Meykhati's friends andassociates."

"And sycophants."

"And those who think ahead."

He shook his head

"Perhaps," she said, "if Meykhati feels well toward you and your efforts here, with Meykhati asransar, you will be his master builder, even if you are not Osorkon's."

"I have no interest in titles and offices," Devorast told her "I build to build, not to advance myself inthe Second Quarter."

"I understand that the master builder of the moment

may have decided to keep hold of that title and office anyway, should Meykhati advance He will bethere with his daughter."

Devorast stiffened—not much, barely enough for Ran Ai Yu to notice Could it be that Devorastsought the post of master builder after all? Or was it something else she'd said?

"Perhaps," he said "Yes Fine."

8_

26Alturiak, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) Second Quarter, Innarlith

]Marek watched the dancers for a few heartbeats, then watched one of the partygoers watching thedancers, then the dancers again, then another guest, on and on He hadn't come to Meykhati'sridiculous affair for the pleasure of it, after all, but to do what he always did

The dancers had been brought by the exotic merchant Lau Cheung Fen, and the guests were dazzled bytheir otherworldly beauty and alien gestures Seven women dressed in silk gowns eovered in tinybrass bells and what appeared to be miniature cymbals, twitched and jerked to the strains of a Shou

"musician" who made the most horrendous, atonal bleats on some kind of unwieldy string instrument.Marek's head began to pound, and he found he had to use a spell to make the "music" fade from hishearing, to be replaced by the private, often whispered conversations of Meykhati's other guests

"Miss Phyrea," the Shou woman Ran Ai Yu, who Marek found almost as fascinating as he didfrustrating said with a shallow bow "I have not had the pleasure to see your father this evening."

"He's not here," Phyrea choked out

The beautiful, haunted daughter of the inept master builder couldn't even look at the Shou woman Hereyes

had fastened themselves to the red-headed man who stood at Ran Ai Yu's side Marek had never beenformally introduced to the man, but he knew who Ivar Devorast was So too, it would seem, didPhyrea Devorast, if he recognized the master builder's daughter at all, gave no outward sign of it Forall that, the man gave no outward sign of anything Phyrea squirmed under his ambivalent glances.Yes, Marek Rymiit thought, much more interesting than dancing girls

"May I introduce you to Ivar Devorast of Cormyr," Ran Ai Yu said

Marek found the look on Phyrea's face so priceless he just had to smile and clap his hands The otherguests around him clapped as well, apparently thinking he was applauding the performance

"Aren't they just?" a shrill voice invaded from his side The effect of the spell made it painfully loud,and Marek couldn't stifle a grunt and body-racking twitch "Goodness, Master Rymiit Are you well?"Meykhati's awful wife

He forced a smile and nodded "Yes, quite," he whispered, his own voice rattling his ears "I wouldhate to further interrupt the music."

The woman smiled and made a childlike motion as though she were locking her lips closed A spellthat would actually do that came to Marek's mind, but he suppressed the nearly overwhelming urge tocast it, and a second incantation that would make the lock permanent Instead, he kept his ears on theShou merchant and her odd little couple, while his eyes made a great show of adoring the dancersfrom beyond the Utter East

"No," Phyrea said, her voice so thick with the lie that Marek wished he could at least glance at Ran

Ai Yu's face to be sure she detected it as well, but alas Meykhati's hideous wife still stood at hiselbow, believing him to be every inch the dilettante her husband was "No, we haven't met."

"I would have remembered, I'm sure." Devorast must have lied too, but there was no hint of that in hissteady, uninterested voice

"Of course, though," Phyrea said, "I have heard of your great your great undertaking."

Two of the dancers swayed their hips to the jarring rhythm while the other five stood as still asstatues Marek found their utter lack of motion interesting, but only passingly so The two leaddancers jangled their bells and otherwise made rhythmic hissing and pinging noises They wavedtheir hands in a way that Marek thought looked a bit like they might be casting spells, but he detected

no fluctuation in the Weave

"It keeps me occupied," Devorast replied "I am away from the city for prolonged periods."

"Are you?" Phyrea accused Marek raised an eyebrow "Perhaps that explains why our paths havenever even once crossed, though we seem to know many of the same people."

"Not too many," Devorast assured her "Meykhati, at least," she said

Devorast shook his head, but it was Ran Ai Yu who said, "I asked Master Devorast to come with metonight so that he might make the acquaintance of the senator."

"And have you?" Phyrea asked Devorast

"We have been introduced," he replied

The two lead dancers wiggled back to the line behind them, and looking for all the world like waterfoul plucking food from a still pond, pecked one each of their companions and froze Those so peckedbegan to sway and slipped out of line to take over the incomprehensible series of motions The musicchanged too, going from one set of atonal pings to a series of bursts of grinding metal Marek resistedthe urge to flee

"It can be a burden, can't it?" asked Phyrea

"Ma'am?" Devorast prompted

"Having too many friends."

"I wouldn't know."

"Wouldn't you?" she asked, and Marek got the feeling she thought she might be toying with Devorast.Silly girl "You seem like a man who would have unusual friends Like Miss Yu, here."

"Miss Ran," Devorast corrected, and Marek so wanted to see Phyrea squirm But instead, he watchedthe dancers sway around each other like two snakes reluctant to mate "I have friends, yes I don't feelburdened by them."

"Sometimes I feel so burdened I can hardly stand," Phyrea said, and again Marek lifted an eyebrow

"Perhaps you don't have enough to occupy your mind," Devorast said

"Should I build a canal then?"

"No," he told her, still without a trace of emotion "But you can do anything else." "I wish that wereso."

"It is," he assured her, and Marek felt bile rise in his throat

"Oh, yes, my darling," Meykhati's pinch-faced wife whispered at Marek's elbow Her hissing voicewas so loud to him that Marek had to close his eyes "Straight away."

With that, at least she was gone

As the new lead pair of dancers worked their way back to the line behind them, Marek turned toglance at Phyrea and Devorast Ran Ai Yu had wandered off to be replaced by Lau Cheung Fen, whotook Devorast by the arm

The Shou gentleman had no trouble pulling Devorast away from Phyrea, who all but ran to the farthestcorner of the large room, disappearing into a crowd of her father's friends and political associates.Devorast didn't watch her go, but a twitch of his eye betrayed him to one as observant as MarekRymiit

This, the Red Wizard thought, is a relationship I will need to follow as closely as possible

Two new dancers began to quiver so quickly they appeared in the throws of some sort of catalepsy.The jangle

of their various bells and cymbals began to intrude on Marek's spell, and he noted a few in thecrowded room place hands to their ears to fend off the foreign cacophony

"I will leave it to you to determine the advantages to you and your trade," Devorast told Lau CheungFen

"And there is nothing you wish to add?" the Shou asked "I should think that to have the endorsement

of the merchant fleets of Shou Lung would be for you a very ah, but help with the word ?"

"Advantageous?" Devorast provided

Sharp, Marek thought Very sharp of mind indeed, this shipwright turned canal builder

Lau sketched a shallow bow and said, "To have this advantageous support from afar would give yougreater support at home, is that not true?"

"I have all the support I need," Devorast replied, and Marek cringed at the supreme self-confidence ofthat, the bold naivete "I will build the canal, who uses it and why makes no difference to me."

"Ivar," Willem Korvan said, appearing from the crowd holding a half-full tallglass of Inthelph'supstart local vintage He took Devorast by the arm and bowed to the Shou "If I may."

Lau Cheung Fen appeared reluctant to release him, but apparently felt he had no choice and returnedWillem's bow

All seven of the dancers began to move in a slow, fluid motion that Marek assumed most men wouldfind alluring For him, though, there was Willem Korvan The young senator's immaculate dresscomplimented his perfect features Next to the disheveled, weather-beaten, ill-dressed Devorast,Willem appeared soft, still in the full flower of youth Though Marek had heard the two were of anage, he would have thought Ivar Devorast at least a decade Willem Korvan's senior

"Is that the best you can do?" Willem said to Devorast, the contempt soaking each word in bile

"Hello, Willem," Devorast said "Is that the best you can do?"

"Is there something you need from me?" asked Devorast

Willem's handsome face went flat, his jaw tight and his lips twisted

"Do you realize that that one man could—" Willem started to say, and just then Marek's spell fadedout, and the clashing harmonics of the exotic music once more assaulted his ears

He started moving in the direction of the two Cormyreans before he even made up his mind as towhich of the several reasons for doing so drove him over there Did he want to break up what mightbecome and unseemly brawl? Other than the fact that it would be a shame should something happen todamage Willem's-face, why on spinning Toril would he care if the two men came to blows? Ofcourse, he wanted to hear their conversation but knew that as soon as he was close enough to hearthem without the aid of a spell they'd stop talking in front of him

Whatever the reason, he arrived at their side in a shot, but refused to look at Devorast

"Ah, Senator Korvan," he gushed, "there you are."

"Master Rymiit," Willem mumbled, his face red, his eyes darting around as though he were a rabbitcaught in a snare "May I present—"

Marek didn't want to be introduced to Ivar Devorast just then Not yet, he thought So he clamped hishand on Willem's arm and squeezed

"Master Rymiit " Willem almost protested, but let himself be led away at a pace that drew alarmedglances from the mingling aristocrats around them

When they were out of earshot of Ivar Devorast, Rymiit said, "Really, Senator, you should take carewith whom you're seen conversing."

"But—" the pretty weakling started to protest.

"Go tell our host how much you enjoy this hideous

clanging and stomping about," he said, pushing Willem away, but releasing his grip only slowly, andwith some reluctance

Willem looked down at his hand with vague discomfort, but Marek was quickly distracted by Phyrea.The girl stood on her tiptoes, peering as best she could above the heads of the other guests Thecrowd erupted in insincere applause for the imported entertainment, and Marek stopped to make ashow of it His eyes never left Phyrea though, and he took some interest in her crestfallen mien

As the applause died down, he made his way to her side She looked up at him as if he were the lastman in Faerun she wanted to see, and maybe he was

"Master Rymiit," she said, "hello again."

"Hello again to you too, my dear I couldn't help but notice were you looking for someone?"

She sighed, her shoulders slumped, and she looked off to her right at nothing

"Phyrea?"

"Yes," she answered fast "No I mean that man Devorast is his name."

"The savior of merchant captains across Toril, yes," Marek mumbled "What of him?"

"He's "

"Gone, yes," Marek said "I'm sure Senator Korvan told me he was just leaving Surely you don't haveanything to do with that beastly man."

She nodded and shook her head at the same time, and Marek risked a playful laugh at her confusion

"The ransar—" she started

"Is not immune to the occasional ill-considered decisions, my dear," he finished for her "I assure youthat Ivar Devorast is just that."

"Still, there's something about him, don't you think?"

"No," he lied "There's nothing about him at all but a man in deep water who hasn't sorted out that he'salready drowned."

Phyrea wasn't listening Marek could tell She listened to someone else, and nodded ever so slightly

in response

What do you hear? Marek Rymiit wondered What do you know?

9_

27Alturiak, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) The Canal Site

The stout wooden planks that braced the sides of the trench shattered They crumbled to sawdust all atonce; an explosion of brown dust that followed a loud sizzling sound that must have been a millionsofter cracks all intermingled

Hrothgar looked up at the sound He'd heard a lot of new, strange sounds in his time among humans,under the limitless sky and so near the unforgiving sea, but he'd been at the canal site long enough togrow accustomed to its noises, and that one—those millions at once—didn't belong Because of thesound, though, he saw the planks shatter, and the dried-mud walls begin to crumble He saw the meninside paw at their dust-blinded eyes, and their screams tore up from the depths of the trench As tall

as the humans were, the lip of the trench towered over their heads, twice again as tall as the tallest ofthe diggers

"By the unhewn rock of Deepshaft Hall," the dwarf cursed "They'll be-"

Devorast pushed past him at a run, but it took some time for Hrothgar to realize they were beingattacked At first the trench collapse was just another accident—not that there had been many In fact,Hrothgar had commented to Devorast and to his cousin Vrengarl on many occasions already how

surprised he was that so few men had been injured, and how incomprehensible it was that no one hadyet died for the cause of the canal What they were building was so big, there were so many men, andso

many things that could go wrong

A trench could cave in, but what made the planks explode into dust?

The wind had been light all day, the clouds gray but thin and dry Though Hrothgar could hardly becalled an expert on the ways of wind and storm, the wind that blew the dirt onto those poor diggersdidn't just blow in on its own from the Lake of Steam

He ran after Devorast, not bothering to consider how many times he'd done just that in only the pastfew years Devorast reached the crumbling edge of the trench long before the dwarf He skidded to astop, sending dust swirling around his toes only to be whipped into a series of tiny little tornadoesaround his feet

Then the wind changed again, and lifted Devorast off the ground The human hurtled backwardthrough the air, his arms pinwheeling at his sides in a vain attempt to either stop or control his suddenflight He slammed hard into Hrothgar The dwarf tried to wrap his arms around the human's waist,made every effort to catch him, but was rewarded with a broken nose, a poked eye, and an impact onhis chest hard enough to drain his lungs of air

They ended up on the ground in an undignified sprawl, their hair and clothing still whipping aroundthem in the sourceless gust of hurricane-force wind

"The men!" Devorast barked

His eyes were closed, and blood trickled from under the line of his shaggy red hair Hrothgar blinkedback unwelcome tears and shot blood and snot out of his nose in a painful exhalation that at least lethim start to breathe again The two of them stood at the same time, neither helping the other to his feet

By the time Hrothgar reoriented himself, the trench was gone Wind whipped the dirt so thoroughlythat anyone passing by who had not seen it only moments before, would never have suspected thatthere had been a hole there at all

"Five men," Hrothgar growled to himself

He looked to Devorast, who stood tall but still His head moved to one side, then the other

"What is it?" the dwarf asked casting about for a weapon Where's my gods bedamned hammer? hethought "Is it some mage? Some wind wizard?"

Devorast stopped—he saw something Hrothgar moved back and his foot kicked something heavy.Without looking, he reached down and grabbed it—just an old tree limb the clean-up crew hadmissed

It'll do, he thought, then followed Devorast's gaze

"Sweet Haela's bum," the dwarf oathed

"Naga," Devorast said

The human relaxed Hrothgar couldn't believe it He hefted the makeshift club and stepped forward,but Devorast didn't move He faced the creature as if they were old friends, and Hrothgar realized thatperhaps they were

"What do you want here, nqja'ssara?" Devorast called out

The creature hissed at him For all the world it was a giant snake, but with a human's face That faceheld all the hate, anger, and violent rage Hrothgar had ever associated with humans, and more Thedwarf could only guess that the thing was a male

"Ivar," he said, "you told us that you—"

"Speak," Devorast called to the naga, ignoring the dwarf

"This false river will not be realized," the thing said Hrothgar didn't like its voice, not one bit "Gofrom here, dista'ssara Go now, or more will die."

Devorast crouched and picked up a rock The action elicited from the naga a sound that Hrothgarassumed to be a laugh He liked that sound even less than its speaking voice

"What of Svayyah?" Devorast demanded "She and I-" "Svayyah?" the naga shrieked, hurling the name

at Devorast as if it were a spear What it said next had no

meaning Hrothgar could fathom Devorast threw the rock at the same time it spoke

As the rock arced through the air, four slivers of red-orange light appeared perhaps a yard in front ofthe naga and arrowed through the intervening space, unerringly for Devorast When they hit him, thehuman staggered back with a grunt His face twisted in what Hrothgar perceived to be frustration, notpain—certainly not fear-but he kept on his feet

The rock Devorast had thrown went wide—but then, it shouldn't have

Hrothgar blinked and shook his head The naga was there, then it was just a step or two to the side ofthere The rock was supposed to hit the thing but

But you've seen it use foul magic, the dwarf told himself Now here's more

"All right then," he said aloud so Devorast could, perhaps, benefit from his wisdom, "aim a yard or

so to the snake's left."

As if they'd planned it that way, a work gang bearing all sorts of nasty implements—shovels, awls,picks, and hammers—came up over a rise, attracted by the wind and commotion They'd seenDevorast staggered by the naga's magic, and though Devorast had assured them all that he'd garneredthe snake-people's support, even those simple men could add two and two They rushed at the naga

"Careful, boys," Hrothgar tried to warn them, "it's—"

The thing let loose another string of nonsense words, and light flashed in the air There was no getting

a sense of the source of it and there were so many colors it was impossible for the eye to pick onefrom the next Devorast turned his face away

"Don't look at it!" Devorast shouted, but only Hrothgar was able to heed his words

The on-rushing gang stopped dead in their tracks, eyes wide, moths agape, fixed in their places andthoroughly mesmerized by the naga's incandescent display

"Damn their eyes," Hrothgar muttered

He charged, trying not to consider what bizarre and horrendous fate the snake monster with the humanface had in store for him

One hit, he thought, slapping the tree limb against his palm as he ran Just one

Devorast threw another rock, and the naga started to rattle off another one of its spells Hrothgar sent

a silent thanks to Clangeddin Silverbeard that the rock not only beat the incantation from its mouth, butactually struck the creature a glancing blow Surprised more than hurt, the thing stumbled over itswords then growled in frustration Sparks of blue and green light played in the air around its head, butthat was all, and Hrothgar was there

He swung hard and spun a full circle when the club missed its target All his warrior's instincts—bythe Nine Hells, all his stonecutter's instincts—told him he should have hit the thing, but it simplywasn't where it appeared to be

"Fool!" the naga hissed at him, then said something else in either the language of the wizards or thelanguage of the nagas The dwarf hoped it was the latter

Hrothgar swung again with the tree limb, but at what appeared to him to be thin air just to thecreature's left He felt the branch scrape something, but couldn't see anything The naga twitched itstail and though it appeared as if the tip of it was a full armslength from Hrothgar's side, it slapped him

hard enough to crack a rib—but that was the least of it.

The dwarf's body spasmed and shook, and his teeth clamped down hard

He'd lost his club and tried to find it There it was—in Devorast's hands

The human swung the club hard from right to left across his body, and it hit something more or lessnear the naga, who reacted as though it had taken the full force of

the blow Devorast lost his grip on the club, and it went whirling past Hrothgar's face

"It pays!" the naga shrieked "It pays or more of its stinking kind dies!"

Hrothgar looked up at the sound of another muttered incantation—a short one—and watched the nagaslither away at such a speed

"Look at it go," he huffed out

Devorast dropped the club on the ground at his feet Hrothgar stood, his whole body still tingling fromwhatever the naga had done to him

"You hurt it bad, my friend," the dwarf said, bending to retrieve the makeshift weapon "But you canbet it'll be back."

Devorast didn't even bother to shrug that off He ran for the spot where the trench had collapsed.Hrothgar followed, grunting with pain the whole way They dug as fast as they could, brought in asmany men as would fit around the trench, but not one of the five diggers were pulled out alive

IP _

5 Ches, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) Third Quarter, Innarlith

S he hadn't done any of the things she would have expected herself to do

She had taken no one's advice She'd used none of her father's—her family's—gold The rented flatwasn't in the worst part of Innarlith, but it wasn't in the best either Deep in the Third Quarter, it was atradesman's flat above a vacant storefront that used to sell cheese She hated the smell that was leftbehind and under any other circumstances never would have put up with it It was the kind of buildingshe'd have burned down just because she didn't like it She spent not a single silver on

furniture or decorations, and even promised herself—and any disembodied spirits that might belistening in—that she would sleep on the stained mattress, sit on the flea-ridden chair, and keep herclothes in the cupboard with the rat skeleton and the hardened undergarment the previous tenant—perhaps the cheesemonger's wife—had left behind She didn't bring the flamberge, and had not even aslim dagger or kitchen knife with which she might cut herself

Phyrea sat on the floor She had a candle, but had forgotten to bring anything with which to light it, soshe sat in the dark

She folded her arms in front of her and doubled over Her stomach hurt almost as much as her headthrobbed She wanted to cut herself so badly she wanted to scream ¦ But she wouldn't let herself doeither of those things

The ghosts screamed louder and louder as the room grew darker and darker

Cut yourself

You long for it, came a shrieking wail We know you crave the cold bite of steel That thin chill of theblade passing through your own flesh, and the delicious quiver of your hand as you force it to drawyour own blood

The sword

That blade bites the best

Use the flamberge, they screamed at her in a chorus of disembodied howls Let it drink you in Let itbring you to us

One of them said, Take me home I don't like it here Take me back to Berrywilde Berrywilde

It sounded like a little girl, but Phyrea could feel its soul sometimes, and it was the cold, bitter, meanspirit of a devil.

"No," she whimpered into the deathly quiet of the merchant quarter at night "Get out of me."

A man screamed into her ear in inarticulate rage, but no real sound disturbed the silence The voicesdidn't

speak into her ear, but rather from it

"Tell me what you want," she asked, though they'd told her before She wanted a different answer.Cut yourself

Use the sword—the sword I gave you

Don't give it to him Don't give it to the Thayan

Go home

Take us back to our pretty home and stay with us there forever

Kill forme Give us your life Spill your blood Phyrea shook her head

She'd gone there—rented the flat, broken from her life in whatever ways she could—in the hope ofgaining some clearer understanding Perhaps, she'd thought, in the silence of a strange place, awayfrom the people and the places that kept the ghosts rooted in her, she might find some answers

Did you hope to catch us off guard? one of them—a little boy by the sound of his voice, but a monster

by the cold dread that followed his words—asked What did you hope? That we would just rot in theground, or that we would be frightened by the stench of rotten cheese? Have you ever smelted theinside of your own moldering casket?

Phyrea shook her head

Of course you haven't, a woman whispered at the edge of a sob But you will

Phyrea opened her eyes, wondering how long she'd had them closed, and saw them gathered allaround her They loomed over her, each one drawn in the air from violet light They existed as aglow, as a sourceless luminescence, and as voices

Free us, a little boy with one arm demanded through stern, gritted teeth

Free yourself, the man with the scar on his cheek said

Phyrea shook her head, pressed her hands to her temples

Cut yourself, a woman whispered in her ear so close it made her jump The desperation plain in thewoman's voice made tears well up in Phyrea's eyes Maybe it will make it go away

Phyrea began to sob so hard she feared her ribs would crack, and that fear only made her cry somemore

Feel that little pain, the woman—the ghost—went on Just a little pain of the body makes all the pain

of the mind go away At least for a little while, yes? Just a little? Isn't that good? Doesn't that make it

go away? Can't you just make it go away?

Still crying, Phyrea nodded

Trust us, said the man with the z-shaped scar—some long-dead relative she'd never known We loveyou Will you listen while we tell you some things you need to do?

Phyrea wiped the tears from her eyes only to feel her cheeks soaked with tears again a scant heartbeatlater

Trust us, the old woman insisted

Phyrea started to nod, and the ghosts started to laugh

11_

7 Ches, the Yearofthe Sword (1365 DR) The Canal Site

This is disgraceful," Phyrea said

She glanced to her left to make sure the strange man was looking at her—he was.

She folded her arms in front of her and let a breath hiss out through her nose The man didn't speak,but Phyrea knew he'd heard and understood her

A very short man—no taller than a halfling, but he looked human—rushed up to the stranger andspoke to him in a language Phyrea didn't recognize, though she assumed it was the language of ShouLung, from whence they'd come

Lau Cheung Fen answered the little man in clipped

tones that sent the servant scurrying away as fast as he'd approached

"You object, Miss, to the viewing station or to the endeavor itself?" the Shou merchant asked

Phyrea paused to consider her response carefully She'd learned from Meykhati's dreary wife thatShou would only respect slow speech and careful responses

"Please accept my assurance, Master Lau," she said, "that this is a subject that I have givenconsiderable study I object to both."

The merchant nodded

"This canal is a fool's errand," she added

"I have heard quite differently of this Ivar Devorast," Lau replied

"There are some who mistake madness " she began, but stopped to think Then she continued, "Thankyou, Master Lau, for letting me reconsider what I was for letting me think."

"One should do precisely that," he said, "before one speaks But in fact there is more of interest to me

in what your first response might have been than in what you might believe I wish to have you say."Phyrea let one side of her mouth turn up in a smile Though he was alien to her in so many ways, shecould feel him respond to her beauty the same as any Innarlan

"I hope," she said, "that those who have given you reason to believe that this canal will be of ;use toyour trade will think again This Devorast has ideas and passions, but he has no true skill."

"He will not be able to finish this?" the Shou asked

Phyrea looked down at the toes of her boots and sighed She scraped a line of dried mud from herboot across the wood planks

"I think this station, as you called it," Phyrea said, "is all one needs to see to understand the nature

of this canal." She put as much sarcasm as she could into that last word—and feared it might havebeen a bit too much "This

is for show It's a performance A master manipulator is at work here, not a master builder."

Lau Cheung Fen nodded, and looked out over the men scurrying this way and that, going about thecomplicated business of digging a miles-long trench from the Lake of Steam to the Nagaf low

"Soon," Phyrea went on, "this will all stop This will all be closed down, and all these men will goback to Innarlith."

"I was to understand that he had the support of your ransar," Lau said

"And he does, for the time being That will surely change once the gold has run out."

"The ransar's gold?" Lau asked

"The gold he's already given Devorast," Phyrea told him "It's all the gold he's going to get—all thegold the ransar will give him And from what I have been told, there might be enough coin left for atenday's work No more."

Lau Cheung Fen nodded again, and she thought it appeared as though he was considering her words

At least she hoped he was

You're hurting him, the sad woman's voice asked her Why?

She felt her cheek begin to twitch and so she turned away from the Shou merchant

"To begin, and not to end " Lau Cheung Fen said,

trailing off with a shake of his head

"It might still be finished," Phyrea offered, "but not by Devorast."

WAy?the woman asked again

But it was the old man, his voice a hoarse croak, who answered, Because she can

Phyrea smiled and Lau asked, "By someone else then?"

"The master builder of Innarlith," she said, "has an apprentice who by all accounts has surpassed him

in skill if not position This man is a senator in Innarlith, well liked and with all the right friends Hewill be master builder himself soon, and this canal, should the ransar

decide it's indeed something that should be finished, will be—should be—completed by him."

Phyrea swallowed Her mouth and throat had gone entirely dry Her chest felt tight, and she drew in abreath only with some difficulty

"For me," said Lau Cheung Fen, "it matters only that there is a canal If Ivar Devorast or ?"

"Willem Korvan," she said

"Or Willem Korvan builds it, it will mean nothing to my ships If there is water between here andthere, they will float."

Phyrea bobbed down in a small bow and grinned Her upper lip stuck for half a heartbeat on hersand-dry teeth

"Then I won't belabor the point," she said

"I did expect to see him here," said Lau, "but I'm told he is away."

"He's gone to beg peace from the nagas," Phyrea replied She had been at the canal site for less than aday, but had heard things "They agreed to let him build the canal at first—or so he told the ransar—but came recently and killed some of the workers I fear that if the canal is completed it might succeedonly in spilling ships out into hostile waters, controlled by those monstrous snake things."

She saw the very real concern that prospect elicited on the Shou's face, and turned away

12_

7 Ches, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) Thk Nagaflow

We feel anger," Svayyah said for all the assembled naja'ssara to hear "We feel great, grave,crippling anger, and that anger is directed not toward this dista'ssara before you, but for one of ourown."

The source of her frustration glowered back at her from where he hung suspended, almost motionless

in the

cool, murky water Six more of their kind swirled around them, their attentions struggling between theaccused— Shingrayu—and the human, Ivar Devorast Their tension began to heat the water, andSvayyah's red-orange spines grew redder still

"Anger?" Shingrayu replied, literally dripping venom from his fangs into the water with each sneeredsyllable "What does Svayyah know of anger? Let us tell our tribe-mates of anger."

Svayyah brought to mind a spell that would heat the water around Shingrayu to so scalding atemperature that his scales would slough from his body But rather than cast it, she said to the otherwater nagas, "This dista'ssara, this human, is known to us We have given it our word We have made

an agreement with it."

She looked at Devorast, who floated in.the bubble of air she'd made for him with his arms foldedacross his chest She could read nothing in his face, but his irritation came off him in waves thatnettled at her sea-green scales

"We care nothing for an agreement with this low monkey of the dry cities," Shingrayu spat His

serpentine body twitched, and he moved forward—only a foot or two—but Svayyah reacted to thethreat by enveloping herself in a protective shield of magic It lit around her with a pearles-cent glow,reflecting off the particles of dirt that floated in the water "You made this agreement, Svayyah."

The other half dozen water nagas writhed at the sound of that word: you

"We close upon the place where words fail," Svayyah warned him

"Discussions were had," Zaeliira cut in Her blue-green scales looked dull and old in the meager lightfrom the surface and the glow of Svayyah's shield

"Zaeliira has been swimming the Nagaflow for eight centuries," said Shuryall, "and howeverweakened by age, Zaeliira may be, all naja'ssara heed the counsel of Zaeliira."

"We make our own way," Shingrayu hissed "We are Ssa'Naja."

"Shingrayu went above the waves and brought violent magic to the naja'ssara in the employ of IvarDevorast," Svayyah accused "Does Shingrayu deny this?"

"Is there denial?" asked Zaeliira, who appeared to smart from Shingrayu's comment

Shingrayu pulled himself out to his full length, an impressive eighteen feet, and drew his scales intight so that he seemed to blaze green in the murk "We see prey and we eat We see invaders and wedefend We see insult and we take offense We see Svayyah's ambition and we protect ourselves andour ways There will be no serpent queen here."

The other nagas raced through the water at the sound of those words, whirling faster and faster aroundthe bubble Devorast floated in until it began to turn in the water He held out his hands—thosefreakish appendages of the dista'ssara—and steadied himself Svayyah waited for him to speak, but hesaid nothing He met her eyes finally, and she fell into his gaze in a way she couldn't understand—in away that almost made her believe that Shingrayu had been right all along

"What this dista'ssara works will be of great benefit to all the naja'ssara of the Nagaflow and theNagawater," she said, shouting into the tempestuous waters

The other nagas began to calm, but Shingrayu remained just as rigid

"Ivar Devorast comes here of his own will," Svayyah went on, "and entirely at our mercy Should webut wish it, the water would rush in to fill his human lungs and take him to whatever afterlife awaitshim He braves this, for a work."

"A work?" Shuryall asked

"We have heard of this thing the dista'ssara seeks to build," said the young and impetuous Flayanna

"It will bring human after human, ship after ship to our waters

Human filth Shingrayu speaks and acts true We should also like to go to these dista'ssara and kill."

"If Flayanna wishes to kill Svayyah first to do so, then we stand at the ready," Svayyah challenged,knowing the younger naga would back down

Flayanna wouldn't look at her, and only swam more slowly in a circle around Devorast

"If this human wishes it," Shingrayu said, "let it ask us all, not only Svayyah, who is no queen here."

"Again, that word," Svayyah growled She twitched her tail to bring herself closer to Shingrayu

"Speak it once more, and it will be the last word to pass Shingrayu's poison tongue."

The other nagas swam then, not too fast, but with a purpose They gave the two combatants room.They knew what was going to happen And Svayyah knew that the future of the canal would rest withher If Shingrayu killed her, Devorast would never live to see the surface again He likely wouldn'toutlive the last dying spasm of Svayyah's own heart

"There will be no canal to bring human excrement into our home waters, Svayyah," Shingrayu said,his voice heavy with challenge "There will be no Queen of the Nagaflow."

Svayyah opened her mouth wide, showed her fangs, let her forked tongue taste the familiar waters,

and shrieked her challenge at the damnable Shingrayu The sound, amplified by magic, sent visibleripples through the water The other nagas pulled even farther back When the wave front hitShingrayu, he closed his eyes and withstood the battering force The side of his face he'd turned intothe Shockwave burned red, and a welt rose fast to mar his smooth skin Though his eyes were closedtightly, his tongue slipped through a fast incantation.

Shingrayu opened his eyes to watch three jagged bolts of lime green light slice through the water,leaving not a bubble in their wakes They crashed into Svayyah's spell

shield with force enough only to sting her, but the shield unraveled fast, drifting away into the waterlike a cloud of luminescent sediment

Svayyah closed the distance between them with a single lash of her muscular body In the briefmoment that passed before their bodies met, Shingrayu rattled off another spell

Svayyah wrapped her serpentine body around Shingrayu's, and the first touch sent a nettling ripplethrough her veins The touch of the other naga was painful to her Scales stood out from her flesh, andthe ridge of long spines on her back leaped to attention A painful cramp raced up the entire length ofher body and slammed into her jaw

But she felt it coming, and before it got there, she opened her mouth wide again Perhaps confidentthat his shocking grasp would fend her off, Shingrayu left his all too vulnerable neck open Svayyah'sfangs pressed down, and the lightning touch of his spell clamped her jaws closed like a vise She bit

so deeply into Shingrayu's neck that she felt her teeth come together She couldn't swallow, andcouldn't release the hot mouthful of flesh The blood in the water, like black-red smoke in the air ofthe surface world, burned her eyes and filled her nose so she could neither see nor smell The sound

of her own blood whooshing through veiiis and arteries as clamped tight as her jaw drowned out allother sounds

Holding her breath, Svayyah writhed against Shingrayu as though they were mating The series ofcramps that wrapped her ever tighter around her adversary threatened to snap every bone in her body,and Svayyah steeled herself against that certainty A loud snap, then the second and third, came to hernot through her ears but through her scales She thought at first that her bones had begun to break underShingrayu's magic, but there was no pain

It wasn't her bones that were breaking

The effect of Shingrayu's spell fled all at once Svayyah

uncoiled, out of control, like a string from around a child's toy She floated away from Shingrayu andspat the mouthful of his throat out into the water between them She coughed and shuddered, just trying

to breathe

Shingrayu drifted limp, but his eyes were open He blinked and opened his mouth to speak He hadsomething to say, but couldn't get the words out His lips twitched Intelligence and intent left his eyesfirst, then the life itself fled

Svayyah continued to gasp for a breath as the other water nagas circled closer

"Svayyah says that this is a great work this dista'ssara does," Zaeliira said "Does that make thishuman a great being? Does it make it senthissa'ssa?"

Does it? Svayyah thought

She turned to Devorast, who's expression had not changed at all She felt a sense of inevitability fromhim It wasn't that he knew she would kill Shingrayu, but something else—something that depended in

no way on what she did, what Shingrayu did, or what any of the naja'ssara did

"Are you, Ivar Devorast?" she managed to whisper through a throat still struggling open "Is IvarDevorast a teacher worthy of emulating?"

"Well?" Zaeliira pressed.

Svayyah turned to her kin and said, "If he builds it."

She had spoken like a human, and had done it on purpose The phrasing was not lost on Zaeliira atleast

"Very well," said the aged water naga "Let this dista'ssara build its great work If it succeeds, it willhave proven itself senthissa'ssa Do the naja'ssara of the Nagaflow and Nagawater agree? All of likemind on this?"

Each of the other five nagas signaled their agreement and one by one swam off to their own business.Zaeliira and Svayyah shared a look, then she too swam off at her own slow pace

Svayyah looked at Devorast in his bubble and shook her head He had done precisely what he shouldhave, and Svayyah found herself wholly unable to believe it

He hadn't said a thing the whole time

13_

10 Ches, the Yearofthe Sword (1365 DR) Third Quarter, Innarlith

H ow did you—" Phyrea began, then quickly chose from two possible endings to that question—"findme?"

Devorast stepped closer to her, but stopped more than her arm's length away He'd been sitting in one

of the uncomfortable old chairs that came with the rented flat, waiting for her in the dark In the light

of the candle she'd lit before she knew he was sitting there, his skin looked softer than she knew it to

be, but his eyes were no less guarded, no more forthcoming

"Osorkon," he said His voice sounded different, softer too, but that couldn't have been thecandlelight

"The ransar?" she asked She didn't really care how he'd found her, but a chill ran down her spine atthe revelation that the ransar knew of what she thought of as her hiding place Of all theconversations, of all the things she hoped would pass between them that night, the wheres and whysand hows of the things Osorkon knew about her was of the least interest "How did he—?"

Phyrea stopped when Devorast moved even closer to her He smelled of the dry earth, the poison sea,and the bitter wind

"Is that it?" she asked, her voice below even a whisper, but she knew he heard her "Is that how youcan do this to me? Is that your secret? Are you an elemental? Some creature of all the forces of nature

—earth, air, fire, water the Astral ether itself?"

He reached out a hand and though her mind wanted her

body to flinch away, she found herself leaning forward When the tip of his finger found the lace ofher bodice she fell half a step closer to him "What are you?" she asked

He raised his other hand and began to unlace her bodice Phyrea's knees shook, then her hips, then hershoulders Her hands had been shaking already She found it difficult to breathe in, but exhaled inthroaty gasps

"I'm all I ever needed to be, and all you ever need from me," Devorast said "A man."

"No," she said, even while wishing it was true "That can't be That can't be all."

The stiff leather bodice fell away

"I've said things about you," Phyrea told him as he put his hand to the side of her face His palm waswarm and rough "I've hurt you."

He kissed her on the cheek, and she leaned against him She put her hands on his forearms The thintunic he wore was made of rough material, cheap peasant clothes

"I poison people against you," she told him as his tongue played on her ear Her body quivered at his

touch She couldn't quite breathe "I hurt you on purpose."

"No, you don't," he whispered, then kissed her on the mouth

She tried to melt into him, tried her best to disappear into his embrace, but couldn't

"If you tell me to stop, I'll stop," she said when their lips finally parted "If you demand myobedience, you'll have it If you want me as your wife, your harlot, your slave, or your mistress, youwill have me I will remake myself to whatever standards you impose I will erase myself if that'swhat you wish I'll cut myself I'll kill myself I'll-"

"Do none of those things," he said into the skin of her neck "You don't need to do anything to satisfy

me, the same way I'll never do anything simply to satisfy you."

Tears streamed from her eyes

"I can't have you, can I?" she asked

"Not the way you mean," was his answer

She cried while he held her for a little while, and she only stopped when she realized that in that time,she hadn't heard one of the voices, or seen a single apparition She hadn't wanted to hurt herself,though she'd offered to

"I have to destroy you," she told him even as she let him carry her to her bed "This world is too smallfor you."

He moved to kiss her again, but she stopped him

"There are people who are trying to stop you," she told him, though he must have already known

"They'll succeed, too, because it's easy to do what they do It's the easiest thing in the world to tear aman down, to pick at his flesh till there's nothing left of him but bones I can't watch that happen Doyou understand me?"

He smiled in a way that made Phyrea's heart seem to stop in her chest

"I won't let you live to be so degraded," she whispered as he finished undressing her "Not by them."Those were the last words either of them spoke that night, and the ghosts didn't come back untilDevorast finally left

14 _

5Kythorn, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) Second Quarter, Innarlith

]\Iarek Rymiit couldn't see the ghosts that haunted Phyrea, but he knew they were there Though hewas no necromancer—enchantments were more his cup of tea—he knew enough of the ways of theundead He knew their power and their sharply delineated limitations Over the past few tendays he'dlearned more and more about the spirits that had taken up residence in that poor little rich girl, thattortured daughter of a wealthy idiot, and he found himself inventing more and more excuses to see her

"My apologies, gentlesir," Phyrea said to Marek's oldest friend, "please help me to pronounce yourname."

"ln-sith-riU-ax," the black dragon said, enunciating each syllable with great care In the guise of ahuman, he smiled at her without the barest sliver of interest

"Insithryllax," the girl repeated "It's an imposing name To look at you I would have to say you areChondathan, but that doesn't sound like a Chondathan name."

"I suppose," the disguised dragon replied, "that I'm more Mulhorandi than Chondathan, but the name is a very old one."

Marek caught the twinkle in Phyrea's eyes that told him she might have been close to figuring out thatInsithryllax was no more Mulhorandi than Marek was a field mouse

"How are you enjoying the tea, my love?" Marek asked her, returning the twinkle

She did her best not to look him in the eye when she answered, "I've never been one for tea, Master

Rymiit, but I'm sure it's wonderful."

"The leaves are harvested on Midsummer's eve from the slopes of one particular mountain high in theSpine of the World," he told her, inventing every word of the preposterous tale as he went along

"Ore slaves carry them whole to a shop in the heart of fair Silverymoon, where they are purified withspells granted by the grace of Chauntea One must have a signed writ from the Lady Alustriel herself

to buy it."

Phyrea laughed and said, "Somehow I doubt you possess such a writ, Master Rymiit."

"You wound me with the truth, my darling girl," he responded with an entirely false chuckle "Theowner of the tea shop knows someone who knows someone who knows someone."

Phyrea nodded, making it plain she'd lost interest in stories about tea she didn't even drink Insteadshe looked at Insithryllax

"The way your eyes dart around the room," she said to

the dragon, "constantly on the lookout for—what? Another mad alchemist? A rival wizard determined

to resist the inevitable? I was under the impression that no such attacks have come for some time."

So, Marek thought, you've been studying me, too Well done, girl But tread lightly

"I am happy to report," Marek said before the even more wary black dragon could assume the worstfrom her playful question, "that my efforts to civilize the trade in enchanted items and spellcraft inInnarlith has met with some success of late It is a credit to the city of your birth."

Phyrea forced a smile and said, "Any foreigner can have his way with Innarlith It's to your creditonly that you have tamed the other foreigners."

Marek laughed that off and said, "You hold so low a regard for your own city, I wonder why you stayhere."

That elicited a look so grave Marek was momentarily taken aback

"Please, Marek," Insithryllax said, "you'll offend the girl."

When the Red Wizard regarded his old friend, he was happy to see no trace of real concern on hisface

"Please do accept my—" Marek started

"No," Phyrea cut in "Don't bother Of course I hold this cesspool in low regard." She paused to listen

to something, but the tea room was characteristically quiet "Of course I do."

Marek put the cup to his lips and whispered a spell, hiding the gestures as a momentary indecisionover which of the little pastries to sample

him the sword, a voice whispered from nowhere It was a strange sensation Marek had heardvoices in his head before, had often communicated in that way, but it was something else entirely tohear a voice in someone else's head It's for you

Then a woman: We meant it for you

And a little boy: If you give it to him, we will be cross with you

Marek resisted the urge to shudder Instead he took a sip of tea and studied Phyrea's face

She was beautiful, of that there was no doubt, but she looked older than he knew her to be She'd seenonly twenty summers, but to look at her eyes he'd say she was fifty

"You're not well," he ventured

She shook her head, but told him, "I'm fine."

"You've been busy."

"What do you mean?"

"I've heard the things you've been saying about that horrid man," Marek said "You know, that ditchdigger?"

"Devorast," she whispered, then cleared her throat and said more loudly, "Ivar Devorast."

Use the sword on him, a man all but screamed at Phyrea and Marek brought to mind a spell that hehoped could save his life if she followed that order

Devorast, the little boy whined I hate him You need to kill him with the flam the flam "

"The flamberge," Marek said aloud, risking that the ghosts would realize he could hear them

Phyrea looked him in the eye for the first time that day, but before Marek could do so much as smileshe looked down at the tightly-wrapped bundle at her feet—a sheet of soft linen precisely thedimensions of a sheathed long sword, tied together with twine

No!one of the spirits screamed

Wait, breathed another

"You'll be able to tell me " she started, but was interrupted by the boy

I'll hate you if you give it to him He'll kill you with it He wants to kill you

She shook her head

"I will make a study of it," he promised her "And I won't give it back."

We'll shred your mind if you let him take it away, said

the voice of an old woman

It was for you, another ghost whimpered

"I can't hand it to you," she said and took a sip of her tea She grimaced

"Leave it on the floor then," Marek told her "I'll take it with me when I go."

Don't let him, a woman moaned Plea—

His spell had run its course, but Marek had heard all he needed to hear of the voices in Phyrea's head

"I hate to keep bringing him up, as he seems to upset you so," Marek said "But I wish you would tell

me why you're so opposed to the Cormyrean and his ludicrous mission After all, isn't he, like me, aforeigner manipulating the weaknesses of the city you hate so? Why, one would think you'd haveinvited him to tea with us."

"I hope you two will never meet again," she said "And anyway I don't care about the canal I hope it

is finished anyway it makes no difference to me if it is or isn't, as long as Devorast—" and onlysomeone as astute as Marek Rymiit could have detected the pause in her voice just then—"doesn't get

to see it through."

"Well, then " Marek chuckled "Still, I wonder why Willem Korvan."

"What?"

"I know you've mentioned his name to a number of people," he pressed

With a shrug Phyrea answered, "My father thinks highly of him And he's a foreigner Why not him?"

"Why not Devorast?" Marek continued to press

Phyrea paused, almost froze in place It appeared to Marek as though she searched deep withinherself for an answer

Or is she listening to the ghosts again? he thought

"Because," she finally answered, "I hate him."

Marek took a breath to speak, but stopped himself when he realized he didn't know who she wastalking about Did she hate Devorast or Korvan? Or both?

15

9 Kythorn, the Yearofthe Sword (1365 DR) The Land of One Hundred and Thirteen

TTnder any other circumstances, Marek would have demanded complete silence He would haveroared that order in a magically-enhanced voice loud enough to burst the eardrums of the offendingparties, and he would have followed the order with threats so cruel the sound of them could peel the

paint from a wall.

But he didn't do that He unwrapped the sword to the accompaniment of saws and shovels, shoutedorders and pained grunts, and stone grating against stone and hammers clanging on hot metal Asanxious as he'd been to examine that fascinating flamberge of Phyrea's there was still work to be done

on his keep, after all

The huge black dragon alit several paces away, scattering some of the black firedrakes that had beenbent to their work beneath him They scampered out of his way as he moved to the unfinished walland craned his massive, serpentine neck down to regard Marek

"Ah," said the dragon, "there you are."

The linen sheet came away from the scabbarded sword, and Marek stifled a giggle

"Lovely, isn't it?" the Red Wizard said "Such craftsmanship."

"Elven," Insithryllax said, betraying a dragon's appreciation for the finer things

"I believe so, yes," Marek agreed "And do you feel it?"

"How could I not?"

"Such a powerful enchantment," the wizard said The dragon made a show of sniffing the air in front

of him and said, "Necromancy." "Yes," Marek replied "What do you want with it?"

Marek looked up at the wyrm and smiled Behind him, ringing the flat-topped hill upon which hiskeep was being built, was the sprawling camp of his army of black firedrakes

"They're almost ready, aren't they?" Marek said, ham-handedly changing the subject

The dragon snorted, releasing a puff of gray-black mist that made Marek's eyes itch even from adistance

"Sorry," the dragon said when Marek blinked and rubbed his eyes

"Part of the joys of your friendship," the Red Wizard quipped "But be that as it may"—he pulled thewavy-bladed sword from its scabbard—"how could I not want a weapon such as this?"

"But you?" asked the dragon "A wizard?"

"Phyrea thinks that anyone who is killed by this blade is reanimated in some state of undeath," Mareksaid

"Is she right?"

Marek shrugged and replied, "Care to try? Haven't you always secretly wished to be a dracolich?"The wyrm's nostrils flared, but he held his acidic mist

"Good," the black dragon said

"I will offer yet another apology, my friend," said the

Red Wizard "I have not been back here as much as I would have liked Matters in the city have kept

me occupied, but the progress here is a credit to your efforts, and you have my thanks."

The dragon twisted his neck in what Marek had come to know as one variation on a shrug, and said,

"The black firedrakes are learning more quickly every day They act almost entirely on their own

Marek placed the sword on a table crowded with other items of varying power and went to the edge

of the incomplete wall He looked out over the finite confines of his tiny little universe and sighed.The air tasted stale, and he realized that every breath he took felt less satisfying than the last Hecould feel Insithryllax eyeing him

"We can't last much longer here," the dragon said

Marek shook his head and replied,."No, not with so many lungs to fill."

The black firedrakes, some in human form, others resembling small dragons, walked or flew in aconstant flurry of activity They'd built what could best be described as a small village on the rockyplain of the Land of One Hundred and Thirteen

"Could be they sense it, too," Insithryllax said With his eyes, and his great long neck he drewMarek's gaze up into the always-cloudy sky

Two black firedrakes wheeled in the air, swooping in fast at each other to spray jets of hissing blackacid They dodged and weaved in the dead air, clawing and snapping their jaws Another dozen or so

of their kind circled the pair, watching their every move and sometimes spinning in the air in reaction

to some surprise bite or well-placed spray of acid

"They'll always do that, I think," Marek mused, watching the circling drakes

One of the creatures managed to get under the other and bit down hard on its opponent's right foot.Though he was too far away to hear it, Marek could imagine the

mighty crunch of the black firedrake's talon shattering under its sister's fangs

"There are ways to replenish the air Spells " Marek began

The black firedrake that had been bitten snapped its head down and spat a mist of corrosive fluid atthe drake that still had it's broken foot in its mouth The acid poured over its wing like syrup, andpieces of the thin membrane tore off and wafted to the ground, sizzling on the edges

"Still," Insithryllax said, "at least some of the firedrakes will have to be taken out."

The burned firedrake opened its mouth to scream, and it fell away from its opponent's shattered foot.With one wing burned almost entirely away, it spun in the air like the seed from a maple tree,shrieking in agony the whole way down

"Higharvestide, I think," Marek said, pausing only when the burned firedrake hit the ground andseemed to collapse in on itself

Others of its kind dived in to tear chunks of flesh from its still twitching corpse and Insithryllax asked,

"Why Higharvestide?"

"I don't know," Marek answered with a shrug "I just have a feeling everything will be alignedproperly by then."

Four black firedrakes went after the one with the shattered foot and brought it down in pieces

"That's less than four months away," sighed the dragon "We should survive until then."

16_

9Kythorn, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) Aboard Jie Zud, in Innarlith Harbor

Ihe air was so warm she didn't mind being wet, even so late at night The thin material of herundergarments clung to her, and Phyrea was reminded of her leathers,

which she hadn't worn in a very long time

You have as much right to it as she does, the old woman with the terrible burn scars on her face andneck whispered, maybe more so It should be yours

Phyrea shook her head and looked at the woman She stood only a few paces down the rail from her,though "stood" might not have been the right word Her feet didn't quite touch the deck Phyrea could

easily make out the outlines of the sterncastle through her incorporeal form, and when she spoke herlips didn't move.

"No," Phyrea answered aloud, shaking her head

You could have killed that man, the little boy said from behind her Phyrea didn't turn to look but shecould feel him there No one will do anything to you if you do it You won't get in trouble They're notfrom here They're not like us

"I don't want to kill anyone," Phyrea said "Not these people."

She looked out over the still water to the lights of the city The moon was bright in the clear, speckled sky, trailing her glittering tears behind her Phyrea felt a sudden urge to offer a prayer toSelune—a prayer of forgiveness, perhaps

star-You have nothing to be ashamed of, the voice of the man murmured in her head He sounded bored,old, and tired Except for relinquishing the sword

Yes, said the old woman, you should be ashamed of giving away that sword

"No," Phyrea sighed

Yes, the woman repeated as she drifted closer The Thayan will destroy you and everything you'veever loved with that sword

And it was meant for you, the man said

And we want it back, said the boy

"You're wrong," Phyrea said, not looking at the ghosts She ran a finger along the cool, smooth tiles

on the railing The glazed ceramic shone in the moonlight "No, you're lying He can't destroyeverything I've ever loved,

because I've never loved anything, except—"

"Who are you?" a strange, heavily-accented voice interrupted Phyrea dismissed it as another ghost,until she heard a footstep "Answer me, woman, or your head and your body will go separately intothe next world."

Phyrea turned her head The woman that had been there before, the one that had taken up residence inPhyrea's head, was gone The silhouette of a woman stood at the hatch to the sterncastle Phyreacouldn't see her face, but the straight-bladed long sword she held in her right hand reflected Selune'sbrilliance "Speak," the woman demanded

Phyrea sighed, and made a point to leave both her hands on the railing in front of her where they could

be clearly seen

Another hatch opened, and a man's voice rattled through a sentence's worth of words in someincomprehensible tongue He was answered by a single word from the woman

"I am master of this vessel," the woman said, "and I command you to explain yourself."

"I just wanted to see it," Phyrea said, her voice quiet and small, weak even, but carrying well enough

in the still night air "No I mean, I wanted to touch it I wanted to feel it."

The woman and the man kept quiet and still while Phyrea fought back tears

"My man," the woman—Ran Ai Yu—said, "did you kill him?"

Phyrea shook her head

The woman stepped closer, and Phyrea could feel her eyes on her Phyrea was unarmed She waspractically naked There were more footsteps, more men, more of Ran Ai Yu's crew

"I might have hurt him," Phyrea said "I'm sorry."

"I know you," Ran Ai Yu said "You are the daughter of the master builder."

She wants him too, you know, the old woman's voice whispered inside her

"Why wouldn't she?" Phyrea answered aloud Ran Ai Yu stepped closer still

"Are you drunk?" the Shou woman asked "Are you mad?"

Phyrea laughed and sobbed at the same time

"He built this," Phyrea said "He made it with his own hands, but more than that, he formed it in hismind from nothing He conjured it, you know, but not the way a wizard would It was an act of purecreation, the invention of something from nothing."

"Ivar Devorast," Ran Ai Yu said, "yes."

Phyrea cringed, almost seized when the woman of purple light shrieked, You see?

"Stop it," Phyrea demanded of the ghost "You don't know."

"I do," the Shou answered

Phyrea shook her head, her tears mingling with the harbor water that still dampened her face

"What haunts you, girl?" Ran Ai Yu asked

Phyrea looked up into the black sky, purposefully turning her head away from dazzling Selune, andsaid, "Him, more than anything."

We are your blood, Phyrea, the voice of the little girl who walked through walls sighed, and we loveyou We love you more than he ever will, no matter how much you smile at him, or whatever presentsyou bring

"You lie," Phyrea whispered

"You must find someone to help you," Ran Ai Yu said "But not here You are not welcome here."One of the men spoke to his mistress in their native tongue, and again Ran Ai Yu answered with but asingle word

Then in Common she said, "No, I can not let her swim back at night There will be tonrongs I willhave my men lower a boat and row you back to the city I hope you will never again be so foolish as

to do this, and if my man here

is dead, or dies as a result of your attack upon him, there will be a debt owed."

Phyrea couldn't move, even just to shrug, nod, or hake her head Her hands warmed the tiles on therailing, and her feet caressed the deck Her heart seemed to swell in her chest and she stood there, herhair beginning to dry and swirl in a sudden breeze, while they lowered a boat

Before she climbed down into it, she looked at the Shou sailor sprawled on the deck, and in the quietshe could hear him breathing

You should have killed that slant-eyed foreign bastard, the little boy told her

Phyrea saw him standing there, the outline of Ran Ai Yu visible through the violet luminescence, andshe was all but overcome with sadness

"Perhaps," the Shou woman said, "if you too had something of his "

Not wanting her to continue, Phyrea turned and followed a wary sailor into the waiting boat

17_

lOKythorn, the Yearofthe Sword (1365 DR) The Palace of Many Spires, Innarlith

Though his skin was pale, verging on pink, and his features were typically brutish, the Ransar ofInnarlith reminded Ran Ai Yu of the monks of her homeland His head was shaved clean, and hisdress was simple, functional, and devoid of ornamentation Though in the strictly confined limits ofthe city-state he was a sort of king, it would have been impossible to draw any such conclusionmerely by looking at him When he walked, his arms swung at his side in an undisciplined, evenboyish manner He smelled faintly of garlic and the rough tallow soap the Innarlans too rarely used.His feet were clad in simple leather sandals that exposed his long, crooked toes

"Her name is Phyrea," Ran Ai Yu said "She is the daughter of your master builder."

Osorkon nodded as they strolled, and replied, "Of course Everyone knows Phyrea, at least, as much

as she allows us to know her No small number of men would like to take her as a mistress if not awife There are rumors of a dark side to her, too—some accusations of thievery, even What interestcan she be to Shou Lung?"

"She is of interest to me, Ransar," Ran Ai Yu said She didn't bother to once again correct him, to tellhim that she was a merchant—mistress of a sailing vessel of her own—and not an official,ambassador, or other sort of representative of her homeland "Only just before middark last night did

I find her standing by the rail of my ship She had swim swum I don't but she swam there in thedark of the night at great risk, and with motives I am having trouble understanding."

"She can't have been trying to steal from you," Osorkon said

"I do not have reason to believe that."

Ran Ai Yu let her fingertips brush a blooming rose as she strolled past a particularly healthy bush.The ransar's garden was impressive for a private residence, though the palaces of Shou Lung hadgardens far larger She'd noted the ransar's gaze darting from bloom to bloom as they walked andcould see that he appreciated the foliage and the peacefulness of the place Somehow, it didn't matchthe man

"She is haunted," the Shou merchant said "Phyrea?"

"Spirits have attached themselves to her," she explained "One of my men is sensitive to such things.Even without his counsel, I would have seen it in her myself She speaks to people who can not beseen."

The ransar shrugged and said, "Maybe she didn't swim to your ship alone."

Ran Ai Yu skipped a step Her hesitation elicited a

scant smile from the ransar She hadn't considered that possibility—that Phyrea might have beenaccompanied by some number of compatriots cloaked in spells of invisibility—but somehow itsimply didn't ring true

"Nothing was missing of my cargo or personal items," she said "I am sure she was alone."

"And you have a sensitive man "

Ran Ai Yu let that pass

"Would you like me to inform the master builder?" he asked

"If you feel that would be proper."

Ran Ai Yu let her gaze drift up from the flowers to the towering ramparts of the Palace of ManySpires One tower in particular struck her eye It was newer than the others and possessed of anethereal beauty that was out of place in the otherwise underwhelming city of Innarlith

"I find it difficult, sometimes," the ransar said, "to determine precisely what is and what isn't proper

It can plague one, don't you agree?"

"With all honor and respect, Ransar, but I do not I have come to know many of the ways of Innarlith,

so to me I am not surprised by what you have been so kind to confide in me, but in my realm we areschooled from our youngest age—from before we can even speak—in the ways of polite andcivilized society We are taught always to know what is proper in any situation It is the blood andsinew of our very culture."

What she'd said seemed to please him, and he replied, "Well then I guess I will have to rely on you totell me if it would be proper for a man like me to ask to see a woman like you in a social setting."Ran Ai Yu was struck momentarily dumb She wasn't even entirely certain what the ransar wasasking

"I am certain we will encounter each other again at receptions and such," she said "My businessdemands that I-"

"Tell me if you are uncomfortable with my advances,

Ran Ai Yu," he said, his voice sending a chill down the Shou woman's spine

"I am uncomfortable only because I have been here so long, and have been unable to unload preciouscargo for trade in Innarlith," she said

He sighed at the change in subject and said, "There are men in this city who are inflaming thepassions of the working class, though I have no idea of the purpose behind it I strive diligently, Iassure you, to take matters in hand You will unload your cargo when limited resources make itpossible."

"It is warm today," she said

Ransar Osorkon grunted in the affirmative

"I arrived on the twelfth day of Alturiak," she said "Though I greatly enjoy your city and its people,now it is four months gone by, the warm winds of summer blow, and still my ship is at anchor in theharbor."

"Take your complaints to the harbor master," the ransar replied

Ran Ai Yu nodded and changed the subject "I have been to visit the site of the canal that IvarDevorast constructs in your name It is of great interest to me, to one day be able to sail into the Sea

of Fallen Stars, which I have long heard tell of, but have never seen."

"Devorast didn't tell you that he was building it in my name, did he?"

"I only assumed."

The ransar sighed, and Ran Ai Yu risked a glance at his face His pinkish skin had turned a deeperred, and she could feel that he was embarrassed by her rebuff

"It honors you, nonetheless," she told him

"Devorast " said the ransar "Now that one is

haunted."

"But not in the same way as the master builder's unfortunate daughter?"

"No," Osorkon replied "Devorast is haunted by his own greatness If the son of a whore had an once

of political

ambition I would have had to have him killed a long time ago."

It was Ran Ai Yu's turn to be embarrassed She said, "She knows Ivar Devorast, yes?" "Phyrea?"Ran Ai Yu nodded, and the ransar shrugged and said, "I suppose so."

"I think she came to my ship because he built it." "Devorast built your ship?"

"He did, yes," said the Shou merchant, "some three years ago."

"That's right," the ransar said "He did build ships."

They went a few slow steps in silence, and Ran Ai Yu could no longer ignore the feeling that hewanted her to leave

"I will allow you to proceed with your day, Ransar," she said "Please accept my most humble thanksfor the honor of your time, and your garden."

He stopped walking and turned to look at her Though she didn't want to, etiquette demanded she dothe same

"I will try to convey to the master builder that his daughter is haunted," he said with a trace of a bow,

"by Ivar Devorast, and other ghosts."

She didn't believe him, because it was obvious then that he didn't believe her Still, she bowed,thanked him, and went back to her ship

18_

11 Kytkorn, the Yearofthe Sword (1365 DR) The Chamber of Law and Civility, Innarlith

Willem Korvan wasn't drunk, but he had been drinking He'd come straight from the inn where he'dbeen with Halina He still smelled of her—or at least he feared he did, but it was the smell of thewine he feared most The air inside the giant chamber that served as a meeting room—a

sort of temple—for the senate of Innarlith was dry and hot Though it was many dozens of times thesize of the room in the inn, he felt more closed in by the senate chamber He found it more difficult tobreathe there

"Do you think it a waste of your time, my boy," the master builder said, "if I tell you again how proud

I am of you?"

Willem couldn't answer, so he shook his head

But I can't believe this, he told himself She can't be the one I end up with My mother is right MarekRymiit is right They're all right Halina is wrong

"You've done well these past months, Willem," Inthelph droned on "We are all very happy with you

—all your generous patrons."

He thought of a dozen sycophantic replies to that but spoke none of them He couldn't muster theenergy to push that much air out of his lungs

"But you should also know that I expect more of you than a vote in these chambers," Inthelph went on.His voice made Willem's skin crawl The master builder spoke to him in paternal tones, and Willemwanted nothing more than to strike out He couldn't gather the strength to speak to him, but he felt sure

he could snap the old man's neck in the blink of an eye They were alone in the chamber, after all Itwould be a simple enough thing to concoct a story—a tragic fall, almost silly really, that such a greatman might trip on a stair and fall just so as to break his neck No one would question, would they?Would they take the master builder's still corpse to a priest and inquire of his departed soul? WouldInthelph accuse Willem from beyond the grave? It was the sort of thing one had to consider, thoughthey never did that with Khonsu

"Though you're a senator now you're still a very talented young man, and the city needs your talents,perhaps now more than ever."

But then the old man was wrong, wasn't he? Willem had no talent—none at all—save the talent forimpressing

easily impressed old men and shy, bookish foreign women He couldn't build anything He couldn'tleave a legacy, or a mark on the world But he could kiss withered old arse with the best of them.Willem desperately craved more wine, or something stronger

"I just simply deplore the notion that any serious program of public works should proceed withoutyour involvement It's a disservice to the city, the ransar, and the people of Innarlith—a gravedisservice indeed."

Willem tried to sigh, but had no strength to do it, so he just sat there trying to keep a picture ofDevorast's canal from forming in his head They both knew that that was what the master builder wastalking about But apparently only Willem knew that there was no way in all Nine screaming bloodyHells that he would be able to build it Willem couldn't even really imagine the thing He understoodthe basic concept of course: Build a trench from the shore of the Lake of Steam to the bank of theNagaflow and somehow fill it with water to form a man-made river But it was such a long way, andwould have to be so deep

"I'm sure you know that the ransar will soon enough discover the sort of man your old friend IvarDevorast is, after all That fool—it's Tymora's most fickle whimsy that the man has avoided hisunfortunate patron's wrath this long I mean, honestly "

Maybe, Willem thought, this ransar is not as stupid as you or I Maybe he understands that though

Devorast was no one's idea of a sparkling conversationalist, he was perhaps the only human being onthe whole of spinning Toril that might ever have even conceived of the thing, let alone was inpossession of the skills necessary to see it done If the master builder insisted that Willem finish thecanal, he would have to do it, and he would have to fail.

"But that's all just fancy now, isn't it? We'll let it be as it may, yes?"

Yes, yes, yes, Willem thought Let it be Let it be damned with the both of them to the endless Abyss.Willem rubbed

his face, and an image of Halina came unbidden to his mind's eye She lay naked on the bed in the innwhere he'd left her She smiled at him in that way she had of smiling at him that made him not want tokill himself

"Really, Willem, I worry about you You don't look all together well Please tell me you've beensleeping It's sleep that is the finest tonic for any man's body and soul You've earned some rest, atleast until you are called upon to finish some endeavor or another for your dear adopted home."

Rest? Sleep? With Halina, yes, two or three days out of every ten The rest of the time he couldn'tsleep No half dozen bottles of wine could make him pass out, even All he did was sit at home in thedark and think, the sound of his mother's snoring wafting through the strangely unfamiliar halls of histownhouse That sound reminded him of his childhood, and was just barely enough to keep him fromopening his veins in the wee hours before dawn, but the house he'd bought was no home for him

"Perhaps you need a diversion, or better yet, a family You know my feelings on this, Willem, and Ithink Phyrea's coming around In fact, I know for a fact she is By the Merchantfriend's jingling purse,

my boy, I've long considered you a son—a part of the family already Marry Phyrea, Willem, and let'smake that truly the case, eh?"

Marry Phyrea? The thought made his head spin more than the wine or the memory of the softness ofHalina's skin Phyrea had shown him nothing but scathing contempt, and her mouth-breathing oldimbecile of a father thought that she was "coming around?" Her disdain was something Willemcarried around with him like other men carried knives It had become a comfortable part of him.Marry Phyrea? He had a better chance of wedding Chauntea herself in a grand ceremony in the GreatMother's Garden

"I suppose you've heard the things she's been saying about you My daughter has become quite thedevotee of

Senator Willem Korvan She's mentioned you to the ransar himself—to all the finest people She'ssung your praises to Marek Rymiit, and even to some visiting celestial from Shou Lung you've methim, haven't you? The tall, willowy one that looks even more like an elf than the rest of his kind She'smade you something of a cause All the wives are gossiping They've sussed out her motives and Iswear the wives of half the senators in Innarlith have already bought their dresses for the wedding."